THE Irish Republican Socialist Party, the political wing of the is refusing to make a submission on decommissioning.
It is understood that the commission asked the IRSP to make a submission after a request from `the Government.
The INLA suspended its military campaign 18 months ago but refused to call a permanent cease fire and has warned that its suspension of violence remains under constant review.
The Government is concerned that the paramilitary group, which presents itself as Marxist, could destabilise the peace process. The IRSP press officer, Mr Kevin McQuillan, said yesterday his party was refusing to "jump through hoops" for the Mitchell commission. Making a submission would only confer legitimacy on a peace process which had given working class nationalists nothing.
Mr McQuillan said it would be "political suicide" for a republican paramilitary group to disarm while "the full forces of the British state apparatus remained intact in the North of Ireland and the British remained as guarantors of the loyalist veto".
He said the US had no right to lecture anyone on disarmament. "It is bizarre that a panel on decommissioning is headed by a representative of the world's most militaristic, warm angering and oppressive nation.
Mr McQuillan said the republican struggle had been led into "confusion and apathy" by the "cynical and petit bourgeois" Sinn Fein leadership.
"The British and the unionists have shown that they are not prepared to give republicans an inch. We believe that unless that changes, the seeds will be sown for future conflict," he said.