The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, has paid tribute to President Clinton's role in the peace process as "one of the players who has not been deflected by the ups and downs of the situation" in past years. Mr Adams, who was being interviewed from Belfast on Fox News Sunday, was asked what President Clinton could do to keep the peace process moving forward.
"I would like to think that the international community and the Clinton administration will come to the issue on the basis of rights. In this part of Ireland, people are still denied equality of treatment and jobs. The militarisation of the situation means that democratic rights barely exist and there is a whole range of inequities and unjust laws which need to be removed," Mr Adams said.
He said he believed that President Clinton was coming to these issues in a "balanced way" in view of the relationship between the US and Britain and that between the US and Ireland. When one considered how much everyone had moved forward since the British government's first reaction to the Mitchell report on decommissioning, "then you can pick out those players who have kept the faith and the players who have no interest in bringing about a democratic peace settlement". Mr Adams at one stage showed some impatience at how the interview with a panel of three journalists was getting "bogged down" on the decommissioning question.
Asked if he could not make a good-faith gesture and give up some weapons he replied: "I have no weapons . . . That is a matter for the IRA. I don't have the influence to make them surrender weapons when the British government over the last 30 years has been unable to bring about that kind of gesture. The Ulster Unionist Party which Mr Trimble heads has more weapons than Sinn Fein."
There was "no possibility of the IRA surrendering weapons" as a "token gesture" before the talks. This had not happened anywhere in the world, Mr Adams said.
Mr Adams is to travel to the United States in August and will take part in at least one "major fund-raising event" in New York, the party said yesterday.
Mr Adams was banned from visiting the US after the IRA ended its first cease-fire. Contact between him and the US State Department was also effectively cut. It seems this has now been renewed.
In a statement yesterday Sinn Fein said Mr Adams has been in contact with "senior political figures" in Washington. The party also made it clear it would be re-launching its fund-raising activities in the United States.
Figures released last week show Sinn Fein raised $215,721 in the US in the first half of this year. This is more than the funds raised by Fine Gael, which had donations of $140,000, but less than Fianna Fail, which raised $238,650.
During the 18-month period when the IRA called off its cease-fire, Sinn Fein received donations of around $500,000 from Irish-American sources.