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10 May 2000 32 County Sovereignty Movement IMMEDIATE RELEASE  PRESS CONTACT: Joe Dillon Tel: 01 8492264 The following statement is issued by the National Executive 32 County Sovereignty Movement: "We challenge the right of any organisation in Ireland calling itself Republican, which states, 'Republicans believe that the British Government claim to a part of Ireland, its denial of national self-determination to the people of the island of Ireland, the partition of our country and the maintenance of social and economic inequality in the Six Counties are the root causes of conflict,' And then goes on to secure British Rule in Ireland by giving international respectability to what is fundamentally an armed occupation of a small country by the British imperialist parliament. We must ask the provisional leadership how much longer do they expect Republicans, who have borne the brunt of the struggle, to listen to such nonsense as the type of statement that was issued on 6 May 2000. It is perfectly obvious to any observer of Republican history that the statement issued is incompatible with every principle of Irish Republicanism, bearing in mind that on Friday, 5th May, David Trimble made it quite clear that the immediate issue before nationalists and Republicans was full recognition of British sovereignty as laid down in the Good Friday Agreement. The Good Friday Agreement is the greatest danger ever to the restoration of national sovereignty to the Irish people, indeed the Irish government has already claimed to the 32 County Sovereignty Movement that the 1998 referenda can legally be argued as an act of self-determination. Nothing stands between that claim being sold internationally except our peaceful challenge in the United Nations, challenging the legality of those referenda. We call upon Irish Republicans to rally behind our peaceful challenge to Britain 's illegal claim to sovereignty over the six counties currently before international arbitration. We reiterate again to the Republican family that our opposition to the peace negotiations was that national sovereignty was not a prelude to entering into any negotiations with British imperialism. The claim that the Good Friday Agreement represents the sovereign will of the people has been challenged. The 32 County Sovereignty Movement, by going to international arbitration and challenging Britain's illegal claim to sovereignty, has fulfilled international criteria for settling international disputes at a peaceful level; yet those who opposed the Good Friday Agreement were harassed, intimidated, obstructed and branded 'dissident' in their political opposition to it. We now demand out international right to pursue our peaceful claim for the restoration of national sovereignty and an end to those obstructions put in our way to do so." Page updated 15 Jan 2008 Ireland's OWN Logo by Eamann Website Design and Celtic Background by Míchealín Daugherty Copyright © 2008 Ireland's OWN All Rights Reserved.