The INLA declaration of a ceasefire on Saturday is set to put pressure on the Northern Ireland Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, to include its prisoners for early release under the terms of the Belfast Agreement. The INLA announcement will also pressurise the Continuity IRA, the only group not on a ceasefire, to end its campaign.
The INLA's 23-year campaign of violence ended at noon on Saturday, as thousands gathered in Omagh to remember the 28 people killed in the town a week before. Services of remembrance were held throughout the North and a minute's silence observed at 3.10 p.m., the time of the explosion.
In a statement issued through its political wing, the Irish Republican Socialist Party, the INLA said units had been instructed to desist from offensive actions and apologised for the deaths of innocent victims over the years.
"We acknowledge and admit faults and grievous errors in our prosecution of the war. Innocent people were killed and injured, and at times our actions as a liberation army fell short of what they should have been. For this we, as republicans, as socialists and as revolutionaries, do offer a sincere, heartfelt and genuine apology," it said.
But their apology did not extend to attacks on loyalists or members of the security forces. The group assassinated the Tory MP, Mr Airey Neave, in 1979, one of Mrs Margaret Thatcher's closest allies at the outset of her premiership. It murdered 17 people, many of them off-duty soldiers, by bombing the Droppin' Well pub in Ballykelly, Co Derry, in 1992.
The INLA added that the movement should never have engaged in sectarian attacks or internal feuding. It said the political situation in the North had changed and people now demanded peace.
"Although we for our part believe the Good Friday Agreement was not worth the sacrifices of the past 30 years, and are still politically opposed to it, the people of Ireland have spoken clearly as to their wishes . . . We recognise their desire for a cessation of violence expressed through the referendum and for a peaceful future," the statement said.
It was denied that the decision was taken because of the Omagh bombing, or as an attempt to get their prisoners included in the early release scheme as set out in the agreement. "The will of the Irish people is clear. It is now time to silence the guns and allow the working classes the time and opportunity to advance their demands and their needs," the statement said.
But after the press conference in Belfast, the IRSP said they would be putting pressure on the British government to include their prisoners for early release, including Christopher "Clip" McWilliams, who is alleged to have killed the LVF leader, Billy Wright, in the Maze Prison. He is still awaiting trial. The first 400 prisoners from the IRA, the UDA and the UVF are due to be released next month.
The party denied reports of defections by members from the Dundalk area to the `Real IRA'. An IRSP spokesman, Mr William Gallagher, said: "We are confident the INLA is completely united."