SINN FÉIN president Gerry Adams has said people in west Belfast must "get real" and understand that IRA is not going to return to tackle criminality in the area. People must stand together against the "thugs", he said yesterday.
Mr Adams, who had been criticised for not doing enough to combat the incidence of crime and anti-social activity in his constituency, said everyone had a responsibility to deal with this unacceptable behaviour.
"Parents, policing and justice agencies, educators, the media, public representatives, all of us have a duty to bring about greater community safety."
Mr Adams said that after the murder of Harry Holland and Frank "Bap" McGreevy in west Belfast, he had heard some people saying they wanted the IRA back to tackle this activity.
"Well, let's get real. That's not going to happen," he said.
"The IRA made its position very clear when it instructed its volunteers to assist the development of purely political and democratic programmes through exclusively-peaceful means. And this is what activists who were in the IRA are now doing.
"They are active in Sinn Féin supporting and developing our strategies and actions.
"They are working in their communities on the streets, day in and day out, and they are dealing with the PSNI in an effort to make it politically non-partisan and accountable to the public whom it serves."
Mr Adams said he and Sinn Féin were involved in a number of initiatives to address the issue of crime in the constituency.
The community must work together against such activity.
"Every able citizen has a question to answer: are we going to be dictated to or put down by thugs? Or are we going to stand together against them?"
