Sinn Fein chiefs backed Belfast bank raid says IMC report

BELFAST - Senior members of Sinn Fein, Northern Ireland's largest Irish nationalist party, approved a huge bank robbery in Belfast carried out by IRA guerrillas, the province's ceasefire watchdog said.

In a special report, the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) echoed police and politicians on both sides of the border in blaming the Irish Republican Army for the £26.5 million ($71.1 million) theft at the headquarters of Northern Bank.

It also backed Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern's suggestion that senior members of Sinn Fein, the IRA's political ally, had prior knowledge of the raid. The commission recommended financial sanctions be imposed to punish the party.

Sinn Fein was scornful of the allegations, which it says are a politically motivated smear. It said the IMC was parroting information fed to it by British intelligence agencies.

"We did not jump to conclusions, the material is as strong as anything I've ever seen," John Grieve, a former head of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist squad and one of the four IMC members, told a news conference in Belfast.

The report concluded the IRA -- which killed around 1,800 people during its campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland before calling a ceasefire in 1997 -- also carried out three other robberies last year before the December bank raid.

"In our view Sinn Fein must bear its share of responsibility for all the incidents," said the IMC. "Some of its senior members, who are also senior members of (Provisional) IRA, were involved in sanctioning the series of robberies."

Gerry Adams, President of Sinn Fein, the biggest party representing Northern Ireland's minority Catholics, told reporters in Dublin the commission was not independent.

"The report is rubbish, the report makes unsubstantiated allegations, echoes the line which has been put out by the two governments, draws entirely from the same sources," he said.

The fallout from the December 20 raid has dealt a huge blow to Anglo-Irish efforts to hand the running of the British-ruled province back to its divided Protestant and Catholic parties.

Protestant unionists -- who support the union with Britain -- are refusing to share power with Sinn Fein -- which wants the province to become part of the Irish Republic -- until the IRA disbands. London and Dublin have accused the IRA of blocking progress by clinging to paramilitarism and criminality.

Although the violence which claimed more than 3600 lives in Northern Ireland over 30 years has largely stopped, politics has been deadlocked since 2002 when the regional government set up to share power between the two communities broke down.

The commission said that if Northern Ireland's legislative assembly had been sitting, it would have recommended punishing Sinn Fein by a period of exclusion from executive office.

"(We) recommend that the Secretary of State should consider exercising the powers he has in the absence of the assembly to implement the measures which are presently applicable, namely the financial ones," it added.

Britain said it would not decide straight away whether to impose sanctions, which could include cutting elected officials salaries or withholding grants. Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy said he would make an announcement later this month.

The IMC was set up by Britain and Ireland to rule on whether rival paramilitary groups are sticking to peace pledges.

- REUTERS