PEACE PROCESS IN PROFOUND CRISIS - ADAMS

The political process is in deep trouble because British militarist
'securocrats' are pursuing a wreckers' agenda, Sinn Fein president
Gerry Adams warned last night.

Mr Adams called for full disclosure by the British government of the
activities of Britain's secret agencies in the north over the past 30
years.

In an implicit reference to the convulsions in the mainstream media
over the alleged exposure of the alleged IRA informer 'Steak-knife', Mr
Adams spoke of how at different times in the republican struggle there
were frenzied British attempts to "cause confusion, to drag people
down, to divert people".

"We have to work our way through a very profound crisis. What is it
about? They are trying to defeat us," he told a republican audience of
about 1,200 people in the Ulster Hall to commemorate the 10 people who
died in the hunger strikes 22 years ago.

"It's the same as it was in 1981, in 1968, the same as it was in 1916,
the same as it was at any time in Irish history that people like you
rose up and said we want our rights. They are trying to defeat us. The
only difference is that this time they are not going to succeed," Mr
Adams said to a loud ovation.

He warned that elements within the British system were attempting to
destroy the process.

"The multiple suspensions of the Assembly by the British government;
the rejection by the governments and the unionists of seismic
initiatives by republicans; the failure to implement the Good Friday
agreement; and the cancellation of the elections, have all created a
political vacuum," he said.

"This is being filled by those who letter-bombed the UUP office; by the
continued activities of unionist paramilitaries; and by the
securocrats. There is now a period of uncertainty with the upcoming
marching season and the threat, which is posed to beleaguered
nationalist communities as summer approaches.

""There is a battle between those who want to maximise the change and
those who want to minimise it. By creating a vacuum, the British
government has given an advantage to those who want to stop the change.

"Evidence of this is abundant in the avalanche of briefings by the
securocrats of a largely compliant and unquestioning media," said Mr
Adams.

Mr Adams asked: "What agenda is being served by all of this? And what
do we do about it? The agenda being pursued is a wreckers' agenda.

"The conflict here requires a political solution - that is
self-evident. But for years attempts to bring about a political
solution was prevented.

"Those within the British system, who want to cover-up the practice of
illegal and criminal behaviour, including the killing of citizens, are
opposing it now.

"The responsibility to stop them rests with the two governments, but
especially with the British government. Mr Blair has to call a halt to
the activities of the wreckers in his system."

The West Belfast MP added: "People who are the victims of collusion
between the state and unionist death squads, who are the victims of
Brian Nelson and the UDA and Ulster Resistance, and of FRU and the
Joint Services Group which replaced it, and who lost relatives in the
Dublin-Monaghan bombings and other similar actions - all have a right
to the truth."