Breaking the Deadlock
March 27, 2002
There has been growing speculation in recent weeks that the IRA is close to making another move on decommissioning to coincide with the fourth anniversary of Northern Ireland's landmark Good Friday peace deal.
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, whose party is considered to be the political arm of the Republican struggle, confirmed that he had talks with the British prime minister Tony Blair.
They appear to have reached a compromise on the key issue of more than 30 republican and loyalist prisoners on the run having charges dropped against them.
"We need to work out what sort of process is possible. We are ironing out the wrinkles," a senior British government source told Reuters.
Under the reported terms of the compromise, still in development, thirty fugitives would be allowed to return to Britain without fear of going to jail. They would be able to give themselves up and then be released on bail immediately.
The move is seen to be a crucial factor in any further IRA weapons decommissioning.
The IRA, which has been on cease-fire for most of the last seven years, amassed an extensive cache of weapons and explosives during its violent 30-year campaign against British control of the province.
On Easter Sunday this weekend Sinn Fein leaders will face their supporters at a series of rallies in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic to commemorate the 1916 Easter Rising, when armed republicans launched assaults on the Dublin General Post Office and declared themselves the provisional government of a new republican Ireland.
It will be the first time Sinn Fein leaders will have addressed their followers at an Easter Rising commemoration since the IRA's move on weapons last October.