Adams denied access to Sinn Fein fund raiser in NYC
Published: 8 November, 2005
Action Alert
I. Adams Denied Access to SF Findraiser in New York by US State Department
The US State Department has barred Gerry Adams from attending a fundraising dinner for his party on the 10th of November in New York City unless he endorses aspects of the current policing structures in the North of Ireland. The news was delivered by the State Department's Special Envoy Mitchell Reiss. Mr. Adams refused.
Sinn Fein is being pressured to take seats on policing boards and other structures. They refuse to do so until policing reform promised under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement has been fully implemented.
The issue of policing reform remains the subject of delicate negotiations with the British as efforts continue to restore local power-sharing administration in the North.
Nevertheless, Sinn Fein and the British government have been moving on these issues and new legislation is due in the new year.
It is unthinkable that the US administration would interfere in this matter in such a clumsy and heavy handed manner.
Mr. Adams was to attend the Freinds of Sinn Fein annual fundraiser, had planned to meet with US political leaders, and was to receive an award from the prestigious National Committee on American Foreign Policy headed by Irish American businessman Bill Flynn. All of that is now off.
The visa offered by the US administration would let him attend the award ceremony, but would ban him from attending his own party's event. Mr. Adams said:
"I have have been told that I do not have permission to find raise in the United States. I have to say that this is a rather amateurish effort by elelments within the US adiministration to get Sinn Fein to change our possitoin on policing.
"Our position on policing is very clear. The British government has agreed to honour certain commitments. I am committed if and when they do that to go to the Sinn Fein ard chomhairle [executive] to deal with the issue of policing. These positions are matters of public record.
"The visa position, as I understand it, is absurd.
"It appears they expect me to go to New York and not go to any fund raising event. I am a busy man and have no wish to be just sitting around in New York.
"What they are doing is robbing me of the opportunity to convey to thousands of supporters in the United States the pjrogress that has been made recently and the progress that can be made in the months ahead."
U.S. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y. said the State Department's decision was “misguided and wrong and lacks any sense of historical perspective.” “After Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein have demonstrated enormous courage and leadership in doing so much to take the gun out of Irish politics,” he said, “this decision sends exactly the wrong message.”
Gerry Coleman, Irish Northern Aid’s Political Education Director called the move “political blackmail” and stated the hundreds in attendance at the FofSF event, now a sellout, will leave “with profound misgivings for an administration that threatens their friends, censors what they hear, and punishes good deeds. Do they think we don’t vote?”
II. Contact Information:
Contact the
* Secretary of State, Dr. Condolezza Rice
220 C Street NW,[202] 647-4000
* Special Envoy, Dr. Mitchell Reiss
[202] 647-2972 ext 7312
* Contact both by email: http://contact-us.state.org
[go to “Send a message to the Sectary of State”]