The following is the test of a letter to Mr Gerry Adams from the private secretary to the British Prime Minister, Mr John Major, dated February 20th 1996. It was sent in reply to an earlier letter from Mr Adams to the Prime Minister.
THE Prime Minister has asked me to reply to your letter of 15 February.
The Prime Minister agrees that the IRA bears responsibility for the bomb which exploded in London on Friday, 9 February, for the resulting loss of life, injury, damage and distress caused to so many people.
But even more important than the physical effects of these bombs is the damage done by the IRA to the hopes and aspirations of all the people of these islands, and to the prospects for the achievement of peace, stability and the resolution of longstanding differences by peaceful methods and consent.
The Prime Minister notes that the IRA's actions seek to deny the people of Northern Ireland the huge benefits of the absence of violence, and amount to a contemptuous rejection of the overwhelming wishes of the people of Ireland, North and South, to resolve differences solely by peaceful and democratic procedures.
The Prime Minister wishes to emphasise the determination with which he, the British government and the people of the United Kingdom will oppose, by all lawful means, all attempts to subvert the democratic process through violence. Any calculation by the IRA that terrorist violence will secure any advance for its objectives is as misplaced as its actions are morally repugnant - a repugnance shared by the people of both the United Kingdom and the Irish Republic.
Sinn Fein, and the IRA may therefore be sure that the Government will continue:
. to maintain the rule of law and to do all it can to protect its citizens from violence, intimidation and threats;
. to ensure that all the people of Northern Ireland are free to express their political opinions without inhibitions, fear of discrimination or of reprisal;
. to defend the democratically expressed wishes of the people of Northern Ireland against those who try to promote political objectives, including a change in the status of Northern Ireland, by violence or by threat of violence,
. to provide fair and evenhanded administration acknowledging the interests and aspirations of both sides of the community, and avoiding discrimination.
The Prime Minister has also asked me to emphasise, as he has in parliament, the strength of the government's commitment to the continued search for a true and permanent peace and a comprehensive political settlement in Northern Ireland. The Government continues its intensive exchanges with the Irish Government and with those parties whose commitment to democratic procedures is established.
We remain determined to find an acceptable basis to bring together in negotiations all democratically mandated parties which establish a commitment to exclusively peaceful methods, and which have shown that they abide by the democratic process. The Prime Minister believes a framework leading directly, and within an agreed time frame, to these negotiations can be achieved at an early date through an elective process. Sinn Feins inclusion in such negotiations would of course depend on their own actions, including a genuine end to the renewed violence.
Since you informed the press of your letter to the Prime Minister, we will be letting the press know that a reply has been sent.