The British government was accused of making a miserable response to the IRA's ceasefire during an Easter Rising commemoration in south Armagh. Mr Pat McNamee, chairman of Sinn Fein in Newry and Armagh, said negotiations would take place in spite of the British government, be it this year, next year, in five or ten years' time.
Addressing several hundred republicans at Ballymacnab yesterday he accused the British Prime Minister, Mr John Major, of running away from the Mitchell commission and using decommissioning as "a stalling tactic".
Mr McNamee added: "They wanted the IRA to hand over weapons when their entire military machine was still intact. We want demilitarisation, not decommissioning."