SINN FÉIN POSITION:SINN FÉIN president Gerry Adams has rejected criticisms that his response to the Antrim killings was too dispassionate.
He used a series of media interviews leading up to his leader’s statement in the Assembly yesterday to underscore his opposition to the dissident attack and to back his party’s commitment to accountable policing and to the political process.
Talking to RTÉ Radio 1 early yesterday, Mr Adams said he was bemused at criticism that Sinn Féin’s original statement on the Antrim murders. “We have to give calm, strategic and long-sighted leadership. This was an attack on the peace process,” he said.
Turning to the gun attack at the British army base in Antrim he said he hoped there was no ambiguity in Sinn Féin’s response. Recalling words used in Sinn Féin’s original statement Mr Adams said it was “wrong, it was counter-productive”.
Mr Adams said his first thoughts were with the families of those killed on Saturday night.
Describing the attack as a “dreadful business”, he said: “We have to be resolute, we have to be strong. We have a responsibility to give leadership. The police also have a responsibility.” Gordon Brown should ensure there was no return to “the old ways”, he said.
Despite the weekend attack, Mr Adams repeated his criticism of the chief constable’s decision to request the deployment of specialist British soldiers to counter the dissident threat, while supporting the PSNI in its pursuit of those who carried out the murders of the two soldiers.
He said that he had spent his adult life “working to see an end to partition and an end to British rule and British army involvement in Irish affairs.
“There is a way to do it now which is peaceful, which is democratic, which has popular support and the way that these people use on Saturday night is not the way. Those days are over. Sinn Féin is resolute about opposing what occurred.”
Speaking in the Assembly just after midday, Mr Adams aligned himself with comments and condemnation expressed by Peter Robinson, the DUP leader.
“I want to extend my sympathies and the sympathies of Sinn Féin to the families of those killed and injured on Saturday night. This Assembly is united in this solidarity and I join with the First Minister in his condolences to the bereaved families and I underpin his commitment to this assembly, his resolve to work through our difficulties. There is, as he said, no turning back.”
Referring directly to the murders, he said: “It was a deliberate and calculated attack on the peace process. It was wrong, there can be no ambiguity about that.”