THE release of Ms Roisin McAliskey on bail is "crucially important" in building sufficient confidence in the peace process for the IRA to resurrect its ceasefire, Mr Martin McGuinness said yesterday
The Sinn Fein MP for Mid-Ulster visited Ms McAliskey (2.5) at Holloway prison, north London. She is 8 1/2 months pregnant and is one of his constituents.
He described her treatment as "inhumane and degrading" and suggested the British government was "vindictive".
Germany is seeking Ms McAliskey's extradition in connection with an IRA mortar attack on a British army barracks in Osnabruck last June.
Mr McGuinness said Ms McAliskey was "absolutely, totally innocent" and stressed that her release was "crucially important" to the peace process. He also urged the German government to abandon its extradition application.
"The new Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, has said human rights will form a very important part of the foreign policy," he said. "I would like to respectfully tell Mr Cook that there are human rights issues of a domestic nature which also need to be dealt with, namely the plight of Roisin McAliskey."
Ms McAliskey was again too unwell yesterday to appear at Bow Street Magistrate's court for a date to be set for her extradition hearing. She is to appear again on June 10th, three weeks after the baby is due.
On his first visit to London since his election, Mr McGuinness also stressed that he and the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, hoped to set up offices at Westminster and dismissed fears that their presence at the House of Commons would be a security threat.
The Speaker of the House, Miss Betty Boothroyd, has indicated that she would not let Sinn Vein officers have an office unless its officials swear allegiance to the queen.
"There are no security implications. We come here in peace . . I don't want to kill anybody and I don't want to see anybody killed. The only thing I can do is to continue my work day and night to reconstruct the peace process," Mr McGuinness added.
After acknowledging that it was "still early days" for the new government, Mr McGuinness said he welcomed the comments on decommissioning by the Northern Ireland Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, and was "heartened" by the speed with which the Prime Minister, Mr Blair, had met unionist leaders.
"It is time for the British government to say to Trimble and Paisley that the delaying, stalling and the negativity that they have shown for the last few years must come to an end ... I hoped he (Mr Blair) made it quite clear to the unionists that the game is up," he said.