The killing of two British soldiers and a Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officer by Irish republicans opposed to the peace process have threatened to destabilise the political situation in the six counties in the north of Ireland still claimed by Britain.
British soldiers Mark Quinsey and Patrick Azimkar were shot dead on March 7 in an attack on Massereene Barracks in county Antrim, with responsibility claimed by the Real Irish Republican Army, which split from the IRA in 1997 in opposition to the peace process that sought the end the decades-long armed conflict.
This was the first political killing of a British soldier or security force member in the six counties since 1998.
The soldiers, hours away from being deployed to Afghanistan, were collecting a pizza delivery at the barracks gate when they were shot. Two other soldiers and the two pizza delivery men were also shot and injured.
While the six counties have been significantly demilitarised since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) in 1998, and the 38-year-old British military operation in the six counties was formally ended in July 2007, 5000 British troops still remain.
In 2007 and '08, British security agency MI5, which is unaccountable to anyone except the British government, spent 15% of its overall budget in the six counties.
The GFA established "power-sharing" institutions between nationalists and unionists (those who support the "union" between the six counties and the British state) in a devolved Belfast administration, as well as increased "cross-border" cooperation between the six counties and the southern Irish state.
Since May 2007, republican party Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) have led a power-sharing executive.
On March 9, PSNI officer Stephen Carroll was shot dead by the Continuity IRA (which split from the IRA in 1986 and also opposes the peace process) while responding to an emergency services call in county Armagh.
He was the first police officer killed in a politically motivated attack since 1997, and the first since the old
Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) — hated by the Catholic and nationalist community for its history of brutal repression — was re-branded as the PSNI in 2001.
Since then, far-reaching reforms have been attempted as part of the peace process aimed at de-politicising and increasing the accountability of what has long been viewed as a loyalist (pro-unionist) militia.
Re-militarisation?
Fears have been raised that the attacks may lead to either the re-deployment of British troops on the streets of the north or a response from loyalist death squads, who have largely maintained a ceasefire for the past decade — but who remain fully armed.
Such death squads, in particular the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and Ulster Defence Association (UDA), actively aided by the British state and the RUC during the armed conflict, were responsible for killing more than 1000 Catholic civilians in an effort to terrorise the Irish nationalist population into abandoning their political aspirations for Irish reunification.
The Progressive Unionist Party, affiliated to the UVF, has called for calm in the wake of the attacks and Sinn Fein met for talks with the Ulster Political Research Group, linked to the UDA, for the first time on March 11.
While the IRA decommissioned its weapons in 2005 (under intense pressure from the British government, which used the issue to threaten to end the peace process), in January the British government gave loyalist paramilitary groups yet another year's "extension", or "amnesty", to decommission their weapons.
The day before the attack on the Massereene barracks, PSNI chief constable Hugh Orde announced that he had requested the deployment of the British military Special Reconnaissance Regiment for "surveillance" of dissident republicans.
The SRR is an amalgamation of notorious special forces units that were involved in countless assassinations and cover-ups during the conflict.
Sinn Fein condemned Orde's announcement as a "retrograde decision" with "very real consequences", stating: "There can be no place for so called British Special Forces within any civic and accountable policing structures.
"Sinn Fein and its members have on countless occasions been targeted by these groups in collusion with Unionist murder gangs; as have many others across Ireland."
Reaction
In response to the killings, thousands of people in Belfast and other centres across the north joined demonstrations for peace that were organised by the trade union movement on March 10.
Sinn Fein condemned the killings as "an attack on the peace process" and on the process of demilitarisation that has taken place over the past decade.
In a March 8 statement, Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams argued: "Those responsible have no support, no strategy to achieve a united Ireland. Their intention is to bring British soldiers back onto the streets.
"They want to destroy the progress of recent times and to plunge Ireland back into conflict."
He went on to argue: "Irish republicans and democrats have a duty to oppose this and to defend the peace process. The logic of this is that we support the police in the apprehension of those involved in last nights attack."
Speaking in the Dail (Dublin parliament) on March 11, Sinn Fein TD (MP) Caoimhghin O Caolain said: "The tiny splinter groups that carried out these murders are pursuing a militarist agenda, primarily designed to justify their own existence ...
"I have no doubt that there are still people within the British system who would like to turn back the clock, to justify their own existence and to perpetuate their militarist organisations. This must not be allowed to happen either.
"It is vitally important that all responses to these killings are strictly within the law, are compliant with human rights obligations and are carried out by the PSNI.
"The British Army, MI5 or any other covert force should have no role in this response and, in fact, no role in Ireland at all."
Sinn Fein blocked the functioning of the power-sharing executive for five months last year as a result of the DUP's refusal to allow progress on the full devolution of policing and justice powers from Westminster to the six counties.
While progress was eventually made in negotiations, devolution has still not occurred.
Armed struggle
In a March 9 speech, Gerry Adams argued: "I want to see an end to British rule on this island ... This can only be achieved by peaceful and democratic means."
On the armed struggle formerly waged by the IRA against British occupation, he stated: "In the days, when there was no peaceful or democratic way forward for those who wanted basic rights, civil rights, or for those who wanted national rights as well, Sinn Fein spokespersons, including myself, defended the IRA's armed struggle [which occurred in] the context of British Army occupation."
Socialist republican group eirigi, which split from Sinn Fein in 2006 and is opposed to the party's position of engaging with the PSNI, said in a March 12 statement: "While supporting the right of any people to defend themselves from imperial aggression, eirigi does not believe that the conditions exist at this time for a successful armed struggle against the British occupation."
Eirigi argued that a "Democratic Socialist Republic can only be established and sustained through the collective action of a progressive social movement incorporating local communities, organised labour, cultural organisations, campaigns groups, and political parties".
However, eirigi concluded: "As with all of the countless and avoidable deaths that have occurred throughout the centuries of British interference in Ireland, the ultimate political responsibility for these most recent deaths lies with the British government and wider British establishment."