Adams to IRA: Halt Violence

In an unusually direct appeal, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams asked Irish Republican Army members Wednesday to abandon their 35-year “armed struggle” in Northern Ireland and rely exclusively on politics to advance their goals.

Adams, a reputed IRA commander since the mid-1970s, did not call for the outlawed organization to disarm fully and disband as the British, Irish and American governments have repeatedly demanded.

But Adams said he did expect IRA members to begin internal discussions immediately about transferring their focus from armed struggle to support of Sinn Fein, the leading Catholic party in Northern Ireland, and unofficially the IRA’s political wing.

Adams refused to answer questions about whether his declaration, if accepted, would lead to the formal dissolution of the IRA, which has fought for Northern Ireland to become a part of Ireland instead of Britain.

His carefully scripted remarks came on the first full day of campaigning for Britain’s May 5 parliamentary elections and appeared timed to shore up Sinn Fein support within Northern Ireland’s Catholic minority.

“Our struggle has reached a defining moment,” Adams said in his statement addressed to IRA members.

“In the past I have defended the right of the IRA to engage in armed struggle.... Now there is an alternative,” he said.

Adams said he was asking IRA members “to fully embrace and accept this. Can you take courageous initiatives which will achieve your aims by purely political and democratic activity?”