Printed here is Sinn Fin leader Gerry Adams' speech to the UN Correspondents Association on May 5. The text is from the Irish People.
Today is one of those days which will certainly find its way into the Irish history books. A few hours ago, and for the first time in 75 years, a Sinn Fin delegation formally and publicly met with a British government minister.
It is also the first time that a member of Sinn Fin has spoken here in the United Nations in this historic building. Since its foundation the United Nations has seen many changes, not least of these has been the growth in member states as the evil of colonialism has been rolled back across the world.
I know from personal contact with people I have met from all parts of the globe that the Irish struggle for freedom is well known and has been widely supported.
Indeed, many who have read of Ireland's long struggle for freedom have at various times adapted the tactics and strategies used there in their own struggles.
Our concern is the future. We don't need to forget the past, and it is worth recalling where we have come from so we can plot carefully where we want to go.
This century, but particularly since the formation of the UN, scores of nations have succeeded in achieving national self-determination. Ireland only partially succeeded in removing Britain's colonial presence. Britain forcibly imposed partition 75 years ago. The northern state which was then created, and which was controlled by the unionists, was built on inequality, discrimination and repression. In almost every respect it was an apartheid state in which Irish nationalists endured great hardships.
It existed, and has continued to exist since Britain took direct control in 1972, solely on the basis of repressive emergency laws. In 1960, the then South African politician Vorster expressed a desire to scrap all of the apartheid laws for one clause in the British Special Powers Act.
The northern state, occupied and militarised by the British, is undemocratic and is a failed political and economic entity. Out of that failure, and the violent rejection by the unionists and the British 25 years ago of the need for fundamental civil rights, grew a conflict which has taken many lives and has caused great distress and economic damage.
The Irish government came here to the United Nations in 1969, at the start of this current phase of conflict in Ireland, in a sincere attempt to raise the problems in the British-occupied part of Ireland. The demand for civil rights met with fierce resistance from the unionists and violence in the form of traditional pogroms against nationalist areas. Thousands of families, like mine, were burned out of their homes and beaten and killed by loyalist mobs led by the loyalist paramilitary police force. Then, the British government told the Security Council and the General Assembly that our human rights were an internal affair for the British government and that their troops had the situation under control.
In 1969, most of us had never heard of the Decolonisation Declaration. But we knew it was a crime to partition a country against the wishes of the majority of its people. Hundreds of thousands of us had, and still do experience brutal discrimination. What did we know then of the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination of 1965? We knew only what it feels like to be denied a job, a home and cultural and national equality.
But in 1969 the British government prevailed at the United Nations and the Irish people were sent away empty handed. Perhaps because of that experience we were slower than the South Africans and Namibians to look outside our own country for help in the struggle for Irish self-determination. There was another reason too; at the behest of the British government, Sinn Fin leaders were banned from coming here.
Thanks to the principled stand and positive engagement of President Clinton in the Irish peace process, I am now able to enter the headquarters of the organisation which is the last hope and guarantee of the rights of the people of no property around the world.
Since 1969, the north of Ireland state which is quite small â the approximate size of Rhode Island, with a population of only one and a half million â has been heavily militarised. In all, there are five armed groups, all of whom have used violence. These are: the British Army; the RUC, the unionist-dominated paramilitary police; the loyalist death squads; over 150,000 legally held weapons in the possession of the unionists; and the IRA.
British forces have killed almost 400 people â mainly civilians, and many of them in highly controversial circumstances. Despite clear evidence of murder, torture and shoot-to-kill policies, the state forces remain immune from legal prosecution for their actions. These forces have accounted for a higher proportion of deaths than any other armed group. British forces have killed more children than any other armed group. The RUC and the British Army have been condemned by every major human rights agency in the world.
The United States government refused to sell guns to the RUC because of its appalling record.
The loyalists have killed almost 1000 people â more civilians than any other group, including the IRA. Almost 25% of these have been murdered in the last six years since the loyalist death squads were rearmed with weapons given to them by the then-apartheid regime in South Africa. These weapons were shipped to Ireland by British military intelligence agents.
Currently, British troop levels are at their 1992 level, making the north of Ireland one of the most heavily militarised areas in the world.
And, of course, the British have their battery of repressive laws: the PTA [Prevention of Terrorism Act], the EPA and the Public Order Act. These and others provide state forces with effective immunity from prosecution and widespread powers of arrest, torture and detention, and shoot to kill.
Despite the clear difficulties involved, some years ago Sinn Fin began the process of developing a peace strategy. It was obvious that the IRA could not be defeated by the British but nor could the IRA militarily defeat the British. In Sinn Fin's view, this was a political problem which has been militarised, and it requires a political settlement.
As we looked around the world, we identified with the emerging struggles for self-determination in Africa, Latin America and Asia. We recognised the just demands of the ANC, SWAPO and liberation movements around the world.
Our peace strategy involved engaging with others, including our political opponents, to identify those elements necessary to create a peace process capable of removing the causes of conflict and securing an agreed, negotiated settlement.
Out of our endeavours, and those of others including the Irish then-Taoiseach Albert Reynolds and SDLP leader John Hume, grew the Irish peace initiative, and subsequently the Irish peace process.
Last August, the leadership of the IRA announced a complete cessation of military operations in order, it said, to enhance the potential for a democratic settlement. Several weeks later, that historic decision led the loyalist death squads to take a similar decision.
That was over eight months ago. During that time, and unlike other peace processes around the world, there has been an almost complete absence of any political violence.
Our priority now must be to move the peace process forward â to build on the gains which have been made and to move speedily forward into all-party talks led by both the Irish and British governments.
As some of you will be aware, Sinn Fin met a British government minister this morning. This was the first such meeting in 75 years.
In the substantive negotiations which must inevitably follow, there are three areas which will need to be addressed: constitutional and political change; democratic and national rights; and demilitarisation.
Constitutional and political change: Partition has failed. Britain's presence in Ireland has failed. There is a need for fundamental constitutional and political change if we are to bring this phase of the peace process to a democratic conclusion. Sinn Fin's objective is to bring about an inclusive and negotiated end to British jurisdiction in Ireland. We seek to replace it with an agreed Irish jurisdiction. In our view this poses no threat to any section of our people, including the unionists.
However, we know that others hold a different view. Therefore, agreement is required. New relationships will have to be forged between all the people of our country. This will be difficult. It will take time. It will require negotiation. It demands a process of inclusive negotiations without preconditions and without any predetermined outcome. Negotiations need to take place in a climate where no section of our people hold an undemocratic power of veto.
Democratic and national rights: It could be argued that some of these issues need careful management, that they are part of the give and take, the evolution of a peace process. The same cannot be said about the need to restore democratic rights. The peace process can be moved significantly forward by the immediate dismantling of undemocratic measures which have contributed to the conflict.
These are not present only in repressive legislation. They are part of the system of apartheid â of religious, political and economic discrimination upon which unionist and British domination was built. They are part of cultural discrimination.
Demilitarisation: The British have successfully militarised an essentially political problem. The process of demilitarising has been too slow. There needs to be an end to all forms of repressive legislation; an end to house raids, arrests and harassment.
There needs to be a decommissioning of all the British crown forces, including the disbandment of the RUC.
In particular, there needs to be speedy movement on the release of all political prisoners, whether in Ireland, Britain, Europe or the USA.
But what kind of peace do we want? Certainly not pax Britannica. Not one which is imposed at the point of a British gun nor one which is dictated by one section of Irish people and inflicted on another. We seek a genuine peace that enables men and women and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children.
I have not come here to ask the UN for peace-keeping troops; we can make our own peace in Ireland. But we do need the UN to hold the British government to its declared commitment to respect the rights of the people of Ireland. We do need the rest of the world to insist that human rights are an international concern, that the rights of Irish women, children and men should be fully protected and enshrined in a new and agreed Ireland.
In a speech in the United States two years ago, President Nelson Mandela said something which I believe is equally applicable to our situation in Ireland â to the British government and John Major, as well as Sinn Fin. President Mandela said: "History has placed a challenge at both our doors and commands that, acting together for the common good, we must make an outstanding success of the historic processes of transforming South Africa into a democratic, prosperous and peaceful country.
"We must succeed in all this, in the fundamental interest of all who value freedom and human dignity. The poor, the dispossessed, the despised await our common victory with an expectation we dare not disappoint."
In Ireland we must do the same, and to achieve that we need the help and assistance and encouragement of the international community and the United Nations.
In conclusion, I feel it is only appropriate to use this occasion to mention the late Sean MacBride. There have been many great Irish men and women who have championed human rights and self-determination, but Sean MacBride stands head and shoulders above the rest. A former IRA leader who earned the Nobel Peace Prize and served as UN Commissioner for Namibia, he once said he longed for the day when the UN would finally lend its aid to completing the process of decolonising in his native land, and he wrote: "Ireland's right to sovereignty, independence and unity are inalienable and indefeasible. It is for the Irish people as a whole to determine the future status of Ireland."
Today, in the spirit of the United Nations' "Friendly Relations" Declaration of 1970, we have taken a bold and decisive step towards a lasting peace and democratic equality in our country. I am convinced that if the political will exists then we can finally move away from conflict through the achievement of a democratic settlement. The potentially historic opportunity which currently exists should not be lost. The British government must stop trying to reduce the momentum of the peace process and engage fully and positively in it.