FURTHER violent incidents such as the IRA bombing of the British army base in Lisburn are to be expected if the current political vacuum is not filled, the Sinn Fein president Mr Gerry Adams, has warned.
Speaking before the IRA admitted the no-warning car bombs, he said he was prepared to meet anyone to find a way through "this dangerous crisis". He was unavailable for further comment last night after the IRA admitted the attack.
The Northern Ireland Office last night declined to comment on the IRA statement.
However, the deputy leader of the DUP, Mr Peter Robinson, said that he was totally unsurprised by the admission. "It was fairly clear from the refusal of Adams and McGuinness to condemn the bombing that the IRA was responsible", Mr Robinson said. "The ball is clearly back in the prime minister's court. He must clearly indicate that the book is now closed on Sinn Fein and that the process must move on without them."
The SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, said he hoped that the loyalist paramilitaries would not respond.
Speaking yesterday afternoon, Mr Adams blamed the explosions in Lisburn and the violence of the summer months on the absence of an inclusive political process. He said that he was "shocked" by the bombing and offered his sympathy to those who were injured and to their families.
"There has been a political vacuum here for some very long time. And we have seen that build in the summer by what occurred at Drumcree, by the actions of the loyalists, by what happened in London and by what happened in Lisburn", he said.
"If we don't fill the political vacuum with real talks, then it is going to be filled by the type of incident we saw in Lisburn and throughout the last two years."
Mr Adams rejected suggestions that the IRA was trying to provoke a violent response from loyalist paramilitaries. "I think when you reflect on what provoking loyalists means it means the wholesale slaughter of Catholics, it means the killing of members of our party or family members of our activists I don't think anyone would want to provoke that type of action", he said.
The challenge now was to build an inclusive political process. "As we try to thread our way through this dangerous and risky situation I am prepared on behalf of our party to enter into urgent talks with a spectrum of church, business and particularly political opinion in this part of our island, and in Dublin as well. We have to create conditions where those who are engaged in armed actions and, remember, there are a range of groups engaged in armed actions desist from those actions."
He complained that the IRA ceasefire had been rebuffed by the British government and the unionist leadership.
Mr Adams said that the two governments and the unionist parties also had a responsibility to engage in an inclusive political process.
. The chairman of the Irish National Caucus, Father Sean McManus, said in a statement from the US. "I condemn and deplore this bombing. Violence cannot change the political landscape, only the shape and size of the graveyards in Ireland, North and South ... I appeal to the IRA to immediately call a new ceasefire. Finally, I appeal to the loyalist paramilitaries not to break their ceasefire."
