Ira Has Resumed Undeclared Cease-Fire, British Leader Claims

Britain’s parliamentary undersecretary in Northern Ireland said Monday she believes an “undeclared cease-fire” has resumed because the IRA realizes that even many of its longtime supporters opposed breaking the truce last month.

In a meeting with Boston Globe editors and reporters, Baroness Jean Denton said the absence of a large IRA bombing since Feb. 18 was circumstantial evidence of a renewed cease-fire. But Denton stressed the British and Irish governments would not allow Sinn Fein, the IRA’s political wing, to take part in elections and the start of allparty talks June 10 unless the IRA unequivocally says it has resumed its cease-fire.

“I think we have a cease-fire that is not declared,” Denton said. “My instinct is that people (within the IRA) were looking for a ladder to return to the cease-fire.”

She said the British government’s agreeing to drop its demand for weapons up front before the convening of all-party talks, the Irish government’s unequivocal stand against the resumption of violence, President Clinton’s backing of the two governments, and widespread opposition to breaking the cease-fire among the IRA’s own constituency provided that ladder.

Denton said critics who charge her boss, Prime Minister John Major, was too slow in pushing Protestant unionists to seriously engage nationalists of all stripes in the peace process have been unfair and unrealistic.

She dismissed as simplistic suggestions that Major is tentative because he is afraid to alienate the nine Ulster Unionist parliamentarians who vote with the Conservative government and could theoretically sweep Labor back into power. She acknowledged Major is under pressure from Tory backbenchers “who believe the only answer is internment” of suspected IRA leaders, but said British opposition parties have backed the government’s approach in Northern Ireland.

She said Major has devoted an enormous amount of energy and political capital to advancing the peace process, and said some critics forget “we have a whole nation to run. This is just one issue.”