US President George Bush and his officials should tell Northern Ireland's paramilitaries their days are over, Sir Reg Empey argued today.
As Mr Bush prepared to meet politicians after his war summit with British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair at Hillsborough Castle, the former Northern Ireland economy minister hoped the President would be as blunt with paramilitaries as he had been with international terrorists.
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"There has to be a consistency here. You cannot put a huge amount of effort into disarming and dealing with terrorism in Iraq and yet have private armies in place in another democratic government," Sir Reg said.
"We are coming up to the fifth anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. I think five years should have been enough for the transition from paramilitarism to democratic and peaceful means and that is what we expect to see," he added.
With the parties awaiting the release on Thursday of the blueprint by the British and Irish governments on the future direction of the peace process, there is hope that that could lead to a historic declaration from the IRA that it is abandoning all paramilitary activity.
Sinn Fein and the Government have over the last 24 hours cautioned against over-optimism about this week's package and the potential for an historic IRA move.
PA News