Risks needed to win peace, says Adams

The British and Irish Governments need to take risks to win peace in Northern Ireland, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has claimed.

As unionists continued to demand sanctions against his party over ongoing IRA activity, the West Belfast MP warned his critics in Belfast, London and Dublin that Sinn Fein would not be "bullied".

In his presidential address to Sinn Fein's annual conference in Dublin, Mr Adams told the British and Irish governments they had to push ahead with peace process commitments if they were going to prevent a political vacuum developing.

"They know that a vacuum will encourage those who want to tear down this process," he said.

"We only have to look at the Middle East and the terrible events there to realise the danger of a stalled peace process.

"For our part republicans recognise that building peace is a collective endeavour.

"We who want to see the maximum change are called upon the greatest risks. So there can be no doubt if the two governments apply themselves to acts of completion of the Good Friday Agreement then others must do likewise."

Republicans have been heavily criticised over the past eight days after the attempted abduction of dissident republican Bobby Tohill from a Belfast city centre bar.

Northern Ireland police chief Hugh Orde blamed the IRA for the incident, sparking demands for Sinn Fein's expulsion from talks to restore devolution in Northern Ireland.

Following an incident, the British and Irish governments asked a four member commission set up last year to monitor paramilitary ceasefires and the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement to produce its first report earlier than planned in May.

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