A MEMBER of Sinn Fein's ardchomhairle told a rally in Derry last night that the proposed all party talks at Stormont would fail if Sinn Fein was absent from them. Mr Martin McGuinness also, said "the struggle" would continue if Sinn Fein's delegates to the talks were turned away.
Mr McGuinness repeated his claim that the British government, and the Prime Minister, Mr John Major, in particular, were responsible for the breakdown of the IRA ceasefire. He hinted, however, at the conditions necessary to bring about a second ceasefire.
"Sinn Fein is prepared to assist in building a situation where negotiations can take place in a peaceful environment. But those negotiations must be real and they must be meaningful and they must be designed to tackle the causes of conflict in this country because we believe there has to be fundamental political and constitutional change.
"There has to be a demilitarisation of the situation, that is taking all the guns out of Irish politics, and there has to be the release of the political prisoners. There must also be the democratic right granted to the community that has long been treated by the British government as second class citizens. The question is, are the talks which are beginning in Stormont tomorrow real and meaningful negotiations?"
Mr McGuinness said if Sinn Fein was not at the talks, if the causes of the conflict were not addressed and if there was no intention to give the nationalist community the rights they deserved, they would not be meaningful.
The British government and the unionist leadership should be under no illusion. "When we arrive at the gates of Stormont and if we are turned away by the British government, supported by John Bruton, they need to understand that we are not going to give up our struggle for justice, for equality, for a democratic right in Ireland", Mr McGuinness said.