ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 11, 1996 TAG: 9602130086
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LONDON
SOURCE: The New York Times
The Irish Republican Army claimed responsibility Saturday for the powerful bomb blast in east London on Friday night, saying the attack had been carried out on ``direct instructions from the army leadership.''
More than 100 people were wounded in the explosion, and police said Saturday night that they had found two bodies in the rubble.
The statement, which British and Irish officials said they assumed to be genuine, suggested that the bombing represented a far-reaching policy reversal by the IRA leadership after 17 months in which it has observed a self-imposed cease-fire in Northern Ireland's long-running sectarian conflict.
The claim of responsibility, made to an Irish television and radio network, came as British, Irish and U.S. officials tried to keep the peace effort from collapsing and expressed hope that the IRA might consider resuming its cease-fire.
Northern Ireland's unionist parties, which represent the Protestant majority who want the province to remain part of Britain, also left open the possibility that the peace effort could continue if the cease-fire resumes. But none of the sides indicated any change in their positions, which had led to an impasse.
In Belfast, people said they were tense and fearful, afraid that violence would resume.
The bomb, which went off an hour after the IRA announced that it would resume its campaign of violence to force Britain from Northern Ireland, was placed in a van or truck beneath an elevated railway station near the Canary Wharf office complex, police said.
In the hours after the bombing, which caught the British and Irish governments by surprise and threatened to derail their efforts to find a permanent settlement in the province, there was widespread speculation that the attack might have been the work of a hard-line breakaway group in the IRA.
But an Irish official said Saturday that ``we're not inclined to go along with the idea of a splinter group,'' adding that it might be days before intelligence and political assessments yield a definitive judgment on the IRA's apparent turnabout.
Five people were wounded seriously enough to require surgery, with most of the rest suffering cuts and bruises. The bomb did more than $100 million damage to buildings, according to initial estimates.
The British government, which has been insisting the IRA begin handing over its explosives and weapons before its political wing, Sinn Fein, could take part in full-scale negotiations, said the door was still open for Sinn Fein to meet its conditions and come to the table.
``I don't believe it is over,'' said Sir Patrick Mayhew, Britain's Northern Ireland secretary. ``The key to this process is confidence. Nobody is going to come and sit around the table if they believe there are some sitting round the table who have friends outside the door with weapons and with a threat.''
In Dublin, the Irish government demanded that the IRA reinstate its cease-fire and said it would not meet with Sinn Fein's leader, Gerry Adams, until it had done so.
In Washington, President Clinton said Saturday that the United States would continue to work for ``a negotiated, secure peace'' in the province.
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Officials walk along the tracks of the Docklandsby CNBLight Railway, near the Canary Wharf office complex in London.
Police said the bomb was placed beneath the elevated railway
station. color. KEYWORDS: FATALITY