Sinn Fein
The Week in Review
27 February – 5 March 2014

Gerry Adams lays out the facts over the `OTRs’ issue
Writing in his ‘Leargas‘ blog, Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said that `grandstanding by the DUP and other unionist politicians over OTRs’ was `a sham crisis which has more to do with upcoming elections than with dealing with and resolving legacy issues’.
Writing at the end of last week, Mr Adams said that recent days had seen `deliberate misrepresentation about the OTR issue and the provision of letters by the British government’. Unionist leaders had `intentionally engaged in hyperbole and feigned anger over an issue that has been on the political and public agenda since the Good Friday Agreement negotiations’.
He said `The fact is that there was no agreement between Sinn Féin and the British government on how to resolve the issue of OTRs. Those who received the letters, as they are entitled to, were citizens who were not wanted by the British forces and they received their letters because this was the case. Others who were wanted by the British for alleged offences would have been released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement if they had been in prison. If they were tried and sentenced at any time after the Agreement they would have served only two years in prison.’
He added `Despite accepting that the position of OTRs was an anomaly under the Good Friday Agreement the British government did not produce a satisfactory way of resolving the matter. Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair’s Chief of Staff has acknowledged: “As we were not able to find an across the board solution that worked we had to deal with the ‘On the Runs’ as individual cases through an administrative system …”’
Mr Adams said the administrative system was `an entirely legal process, compliant with the law, involving all of the relevant senior law officers of the north and of the British state’. He said it was `important to understand that the letters provided cannot be rescinded. If you’re not wanted – you’re not wanted. The anomaly of OTRs has been referenced to publicly on countless occasions.
He added `The British and Irish governments acknowledged this at Hillsborough Castle in March 2001. Several months later the issue of resolving the issue of OTRs was covered in Paragraph 20 of the Weston Park Agreement. In May 2003 following negotiations at Leeds Castle the two governments issued a Joint Declaration, including a separate paper dealing specifically with OTRs. And in October 2005 the then British Secretary of State said in the British Parliament that the government planned to legislate in respect of OTRs. In January 2006 Sinn Féin and the other parties, for differing, reasons rejected the legislation but the OTR issue continued to be the focus of discussions publicly and privately.
`It has been the subject of discussion at Policing Board meetings at which SDLP and DUP members, some of whom are lawyers, were present; was referenced in the Eames/Bradley proposals; and is covered in Jonathan Powell’s account of the negotiations. Powell for example, acknowledged talking to the DUP on this matter and that they accepted the implementation of the Joint Declaration proposals on OTRs provided they had a letter from Tony Blair effectively blaming Trimble.
`The British government should ensure that if anyone else comes forward seeking clarification of their status that they are treated in the same way as the others covered by the administrative system Under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Human Rights Act all persons have a legal right upon request to be informed if the police require them for questioning.
`The letter that those who made application received makes it clear that if any evidence emerges of any offence then the person receiving the letter can expect to face due process. Clearly, despite all of the feigned brouhaha and hot air generated by unionist leaders this process is not an amnesty. It is also worth recalling that the Good Friday Agreement, which the people of the island of Ireland overwhelmingly voted for in two referenda, saw the early release of over 400 republican political prisoners, and loyalist prisoners from jails in Britain and Ireland, north and south, many of whom were serving lengthy prison sentences.
`The referenda vote reflected the desire of citizens north and south for an end to conflict and for peace and a recognition that the issue of prisoners was one that had to be resolved. While the DUP campaigned against the Good Friday Agreement they lost that vote and are obliged to respect the democratic wish of the Irish people, including at that time a majority of unionists. The DUP also signed on to work the power sharing institutions in 2007 and now share the Assembly and the Executive with former political prisoners.
`In an effort to ensure that our past does not undermine the peace and the hope for a better future Richard Haass and Meghan O Sullivan produced a comprehensive compromise package to achieve this. Sinn Féin signed up for these. The DUP and other unionists thus far have refused. The legacy of the past and parades issues and other matters are of such critical importance that the opportunity presented by the Haass proposals needs to be seized and seized now.’
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin North Belfast MLA Gerry Kelly described recent days of unionist `bluster’ over the OTRs (‘On the Runs’) as `collective amnesia, revisionist history and untruths’ by the DUP in particular. See his comments HERE.

Sinn Fein chair urges British Labour `spell out strategy for consolidating peace process’
Writing in the Belfast Telegraph on 27 February, Sinn Fein Chair Declan Kearney said that British Labour should spell out its future policies in relation to the peace process and the North of Ireland.
Writing in his regular blog, Declan Kearlney said that Labour had `accurately pointed out’ that the current Conservation coalition government was `in clear default of its joint responsibility to guarantee the terms of the Good Friday and other agreements’.
He said that this had `become most obvious through its failure to unambiguously support the Haass compromises and call for their implementation’. He added `recent comments and interventions by British Government politicians and officials which fail to concentrate minds on the need to embrace the Haass proposals are unhelpful and counterproductive’. He said this would `deepen the current political impasse, reinforce political unionists’ intransigence, and energise the orange and unionist extremists wedded to a wreckers’ agenda’.
Sinn Féin endorsed the Haass compromises, Mr Kearney said `because they represent the best way forward’. Pointing to the British Labour Party’s recent statements that `the outcome of the Haass process offers the basis for a positive way forward’, he said that both Labour’s previous and current spokespersons on the north had criticised the British government’s role, and correctly assessed that the Conservatives `must engage much more directly and positively in support of the peace process’.
Pointing out that all parties would be setting out thie programmes for next year’s Westminster General Election, Mr Kearney commented that Labour `has a deserved legacy for its stewardship of the peace process and role in achieving the Good Friday Agreement’ and that `against the backdrop of the Conservative’s strategic disengagement, unionist intransigence, and with sectarian extremists attempting to exert a veto on progress, it is essential that Labour stands with rest of us in support of the Peace Process’.
He concluded: `It should continue to disassociate itself from Conservative acquiescence in the undermining of the power-sharing institutions by a sectarian minority, and immediately spell out its strategy for stabilising the political and Peace processes. The implementation of the Haass compromises can help consolidate the Peace Process. That is an agenda which commands popular support both in Ireland and Britain.’
The article can be read in full HERE.

Adams attacks austerity policies and sets out Sinn Fein’s alternative
Speaking on 4 March Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams TD spoke in the Dail debate on the ‘Government’s Priorities for the Year Ahead’, where he slated government austerity policies and accused Fine Gael and Labour of breaking election promises.
The Sinn Féin leader accused the government of recycling the ‘same old failed politics and the same old way of doing business.’
He said the Government had `made choices that are not in the interests of the vast majority of citizens’.
Spelling out Sinn Fein’s alternative strategy, Mr Adams urged a 48% tax on income over €100,000, to raise €365 million. He also said the government could `re-introduce the non-principal private residence charge at €400, raising €151 million’.
He further called for restoring capital gains tax to 40%, which would raise €98 million; and an increase in capital acquisitions tax to 40% and lower the thresholds, raising €108 million. He said a 1% wealth tax, even temporarily, on net wealth over €1 million should be introduced.
Sinn Féin had also proposed that Oireachtas pay and allowances, including that of the Taoiseach and Ministers, `be reduced by 50% of all amounts over €75,000, and that of Deputies and Senators be reduced to €75,000 and €60,000’, which would save €3.7 million, Mr Adams added. This would help pay for essential services such as home help hours, funding for children with disabilities or medical cards, cut by the current government.
He said Sinn Féin had been `robust in holding the Government to account’ and `to defend the interests of those on low and middle incomes, and to protect and support the most vulnerable of our citizens’. Sinn Fein `have sought to be constructive in opposition’ and `put forward proposals which, unlike those of the Government parties, are based on fairness’.
In contrast, Mr Adams said `Fine Gael and Labour assumed office on the promise of a new way of doing politics but yet have compounded the worst excesses of their Fianna Fáil predecessors’. He concluded, `the old discredited way of doing politics continues with slightly different partners in Government’.

Irish Government `has role to play in truth and support for victims of conflict’
On 6 March Amnesty International presented proposals to deal with the past conflict in the north of Ireland, at the Good Friday Agreement implementation committee.
Speaking at the meeting, Sinn Féin’s Sean Crowe TD said Sinn Féin supported the rights of victims and survivors of conflict to truth, and argued `the best mechanism to deliver truth would be a fully independent, international commission’.
He said Sinn Féin supported the proposals of the Haass process as a further step in providing a truth recovery process, adding `however, unionist parties have so far failed to either endorse these proposals or to concisely outline their opposition to them. It appears that unionists do not want a fair, open and equal process of truth recovery’.
He said the Irish Government needed to `assert their role as coequal guarantor of the Agreements’, which included the need to `hold the British Government to account for its refusal to have an inquiry into the killing of Pat Finucane and for their failure to provide information with regard to the bombing of Dublin and Monagahan’.
He said the Irish government `also needs to address the inequality in the provision of supports and services for victims and survivors north and south’, adding `all victims of the conflict regardless of circumstance are entitled to truth and support’. At present there is a `disparity between North and South.’
He said families had `on-going investigations into the failings of the RUC being carried out by the Police Ombudsman in the north’, which was `contrasted by the fact that they cannot have GSOC investigate the actions of the Gardaí in relation to historic cases’.
He concluded: `The government has also cut funding to victims advocate groups and supports to individual victims. This is unacceptable and should be addressed by the Irish Government as a matter of urgency.’

Sinn Fein MP in London for International Commission of Inquiry into the case of the Miami Five
Sinn Féin MP Conor Murphy was London on 6 March, to attend an International Commission of Inquiry into the case of the Cuban Five being held on 7th and 8th March at the Law Society. Mr Murphy also attended a briefing in Westminster for MPs and European parliamentarians.
Earlier, Mr Murphy strongly criticised the British Government’s refusal to grant René González, one of the Cuban Five, a visa to visit Britain.
René Gonzalez was released from prison after 15 years and returned to Cuba last year. He was due to be one of the principal witnesses at the International Commission.
Mr Murphy said he looked forward to attending the Commission and added ` The breadth of participants and support for the event reflects the high level of international concern over the case of the Cuban Five.’ However, he added `the decision of the British Government to deny René Gonzalez an entry visa is entirely wrong. Rene was due to attend and give his evidence to the Commission’.
He said the trial which convicted Rene and four other people, `was labelled as unjust by Amnesty International’ and was `criticised by the UN Human Rights Commission, and eight Nobel Prize winners have petitioned the US attorney general, calling for freedom for the Five’.
He said the International Commission this week `is tasked with investigating the fairness of the trial. The event will go ahead, with an impressive array of international figures taking part and giving support’.
He concluded `Given the highly politicised case of the Cuban Five, I can only conclude that this decision has not been taken in the public interest, but for purely political reasons. To deny Rene entry to Britain and the opportunity to give his evidence at the Commission is wrong. I strongly support the organisers in their efforts to reverse the decision.’

Week in Review is circulated by Sinn Fein MPs. Email fisherj@parliament.uk to join the list. For further information visit www.sinnfein.ie or follow us on twitter @sinnfeinireland