The IRA has said it is fundamentally opposed to sectarian violence and rejects claims made by the British government and security services that it has breached ceasefire agreements. In an interview with An Phoblacht, the organisation also rejects British government intentions to introduce a so-called ceasefire auditor.
In the interview, the army council dismissed categorically that its forces were involved in March raids at the high-security Castlereagh police station in Belfast.
Security sources claim the IRA was behind the break-in, in which top-secret documents - including informants' names - were alleged to have been stolen.
"We were not involved in the Castlereagh raids," the IRA spokesman told the newspaper.
When asked about allegations that the IRA has helped train and equip guerrillas of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the IRA spokesman said: "The leadership sent no one to Colombia to train or engage in any military cooperation with any group."
"The IRA has not interfered in the internal affairs of Colombia," he added.
Three Irish republicans have been held since August 2001 by Colombian authorities after they were arrested attempting to leave the country following a visit to a zone controlled by the Marxist FARC militia.
Colombian authorities allege that the detainees Martin McCauley, James Monaghan and Niall Connolly trained FARC in bomb-making techniques and that IRA technology has been used to deadly effect in the country's civil war.
Commenting on British government intentions to put a so-called ceasefire auditor in place to evaluate ceasefires in Northern Ireland, the IRA spokesman said: "This will only serve the interests of those opposed to change."
The spokesman repeated there is no threat to the peace process from the IRA and refuted any suggestion of breaches of the group's cessation of violence.
AFP