Sinn Fein will today outline its view of the state of the peace process and the Belfast Agreement. The party leadership intends to put forward the Sinn Fein assessment of the "the only way forward" in the process.
The party's statement comes as the review of the implementation of the Belfast Agreement goes into recess, due to restart under the independent chairmanship of Senator George Mitchell in September. The review aims to solve the impasse over decommissioning and the formation of a power-sharing executive in the North.
However, IRA decommissioning before the May 2000 deadline set out in the Belfast Agreement was yesterday ruled out by Mr Danny Morrison, a former Sinn Fein director of publicity and former Provisional IRA prisoner.
Writing in the Belfast Tele- graph, Mr Morrison said the theory that decommissioning would prove that the IRA was committed to peace was fallacious.
"I don't believe there will be IRA decommissioning as demanded by unionist leaders by May 3000, never mind May 2000. That is not to say that the IRA will not issue an arms dump order or put its guns beyond use. The decommissioning demand has taken us nowhere."
Many IRA personnel now viewed their role as solely the defenders of Catholics against loyalist attacks, he added.
The anti-agreement unionist, Mr Robert McCartney, yesterday stated his belief that Sinn Fein, the Progressive Unionist Party and the Ulster Democratic Party were not committed to the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons by May 2000.
It was "perfectly clear" that neither Sinn Fein, the PUP nor the UDP were committed to all of the three principles, which are the basis of Mr Mitchell's review, said the UK Unionist Party leader.
"Sinn Fein is definitely not committed to decommissioning of all paramilitary arms by May 2000; they have said so," added Mr McCartney.