SINN FEIN will today reveal the detailed suggestions it has made to the international body headed by former Senator George Mitchell on how the issue of decommissioning weapons should be addressed.
The party's lengthy written submission to the International Body on Decommissioning will be released simultaneously in Dublin and Belfast, and will be, followed by a press briefing in Belfast by ardcomhairle member,
Mr Martin McGuinness.
Sinn Fein had announced last month that its submission would be made public. A number of other political parties have already published their submissions.
The document will reiterate the argument put forward repeatedly by the party's spokesmen, that disarmament, or removal of all the weapons in the Northern political equation, is essential, but that it is unlikely that it can or will take place in advance of a political settlement.
The international body is expected to have a further meeting with Sinn Fein representatives when it returns to Belfast for a round of meetings before concluding its report, which is promised by January 18th.
Such meetings, like the previous one, will take place in private, but it is expected that Senator Mitchell and his colleagues will raise with Sinn Fein the implications of the recent series of drug related killings involving the use of firearms.
Political observers have judged that the open and repeated use of guns by individuals generally believed to be linked with the will have made it much more difficult for the international to find a way around the Washington 3 principle on by Britain, that some arms must be decommissioned before all party talks involving Sinn Fein can begin.
Meanwhile, the Alliance Party leader, Dr John Alderdice, yesterday announced his intention of challenging Sinn Fein at the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation in Dublin over its "equivocation" on the issue of the recent murders and beatings.
Dr Alderdice, with his party's justice spokesman, Mr Steve McBride, had a meeting with the RUC Chief Constable, Sir Hugh Annesley, yesterday which he described as "very constructive".
The meeting had been requested by Alliance to deal specifically with the recent murder and "punishment" beatings. Dr Alderdice said afterwards that it had been made very clear to them that it was the RUC's belief that these murders had been carried out by the IRA.
Dr Alderdice said in a statement that "gun law" seemed to be dominating the republican movement at the moment. Its Wild West tactics with complete disregard for human rights are threatening to spoil the hard work that many people have put into this process.
He said it should now be very evident to Sinn Fein that to be accepted as a "proper democratic political party which deserves respect from other political parties" it could not equivocate on the issue of the murders and beatings.