MARK DURKAN ON IRA STATEMENT

Irish Social Democratic and Labor Party (SDLP) Leader Mark Durkan stated:

"The SDLP welcomes today's statement (See Complete IRA Statement Below). We have stressed that the IRA's break with
its past has to be clear, clean and complete. This statement appears to be that.

"The SDLP hopes that, as promised, all IRA paramilitary activity and all IRA
involvement in organised crime will end now and for good - as well as the culture of
cover-up and community control. That is the only way we can get the Agreement up
and running and make progress for all the people of this island.

"Eighteen years on from the start of Hume/Adams and seven years on from the Good
Friday Agreement, today's statement is long overdue. The delay by the provisional
movement in honouring its commitments to date has been profoundly damaging. It has
only encouraged anti-Agreement unionists in their belief that they too can hold up
political progress for years.

"That is why it is vital that the provisional movement delivers quickly on what it
has promised today and what the Agreement has always required. Actions on the
ground must demonstrate this.

"There is an equal obligation on all loyalist paramilitaries to end their terror and
their crime. The two Governments and unionist parties must bring equal pressure to
bear on them to ensure this.

"There is also an onus on the two Governments and unionist parties to work to
deliver the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.

"It has to be noted that today's statement does not commit to the provisional
movement to policing. Yet policing is fundamental to accepting the rule of law and
vital to tackle organised crime. The SDLP calls on Sinn Fein to join with us in
upholding the new beginning to policing.

"The use of violence was always immoral and unjustified. It achieved absolutely
nothing and brought incalculable suffering to victims throughout the North. They -
and their loss - should be first and foremost in our minds today."