Karadzic family 'arming Real IRA'
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4165412,00.html

Special report: Northern Ireland
Special report: war crimes in the former Yugoslavia

Giles Tremlett
Thursday April 5, 2001
The Guardian

Allies of Radovan Karadzic,the Bosnian Serb leader charged with war crimes by the Hague tribunal, are supplying arms to the Real IRA and other extremist groups across Europe from hideaways in the Serb part of Bosnia, according to a Spanish documentary team that has filmed the Bosnian Serb arms traffickers in action.

Their film - broadcast last night on Spain's third channel, Antena 3 - alleges that a relation of Mr Karadzic, and others in the family's coterie are behind a trade that has turned the Bosnian Serb Republic into an international arms depot supplying groups that include the Real IRA and the Eta Basque bombers.

The weaponry is shipped through Kosovo, Croatia, and Germany to Ireland and other countries around the world, the Spanish film reports.

The illicit trade is carried on under the nose of the Nato-led S-For peace force in Bosnia.

Nato has been consistently criticised for failing to arrest Mr Karadzic. As leader of Bosnia's Serbs during the killings and ethnic cleansing of the early 90s, he is one of the men most wanted by the International War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague.

The arms for sale, mostly leftovers from the Bosnian Serb and Yugoslav armed forces and police, include Kalashnikov rifles, M-84 machine guns, M-50 grenades, pistols, explosives and detonators. Night sights and telescopic sights for snipers are also on offer.

A gang of arms traffickers, led by a Karadzic ally, Veljko Borovina, showed the Spaniards exploding bullets, banned by international treaties.

They said they could also get armoured cars and even helicopters, through contacts in the Yugoslav military and the Bosnian Serb army.

The traffickers said that Mr Karadzic's relation was a major arms smuggler who had sold weapons to the Real IRA through Germany. He is believed to be in hiding.

"[He] is totally trustworthy. During the war he trafficked in alcohol, tobacco and arms to finance the Serb army. He has the very best contacts and has sold to the IRA," explained Lario, one of the gang members who led the documentary team to the Bosnian Serb town of Sokolac.

The film makers from El Mundo TV, a production company owned by the Madrid daily El Mundo, posed as drug traffickers buying for paramilitary groups in Colombia.

They started their search for arms in Spain by contacting a well known Croatian gangster with property there. They were passed to a series of Balkan mafia contacts, whom they filmed secretly. The trail led to Budapest in Hungary and on to Bosnia - first Sarajevo, then Kiseljak and, finally, Sokolac.

There they were taken into a forest by Mr Borovina, who is wanted by police in connection with the murder of a former Bosnian Serb police chief Ljubisa Savic - a Karadzic opponent.

Mr Borovina invited his supposed buyers to try out a large range of weaponry.

"We've got Kalashnikovs, machine guns, pistols, grenades, whatever you want," he explained. "These bullets can penetrate a bullet-proof vest and rip it to pieces," he said, showing a hollow bullet banned by international treaties.

He also said he could supply bullets that carry chemicals, which are also banned under international law.

The traffickers explained that most of the weapons had once belonged to the Bosnian Serb army. So many weapons were now on the market, they added, that prices were half the original: a Kalashnikov at £320, an M-84 machine gun at £800. The traffickers agreed a price equalling £1.5m for 200 Kalashnikovs, 75 M-84s, 500 pistols, 50 sniper rifles with telescopic sights, half a tonne of TNT, 1,000 crates of ammunition and 5,000 grenades. Payment was to be made half in cash and half in cocaine.

In Britain, Ulster Unionist MPs recently claimed that Real IRA members were posing as charity workers to travel to the former Yugoslavia to buy arms.

The rocket-propelled grenade launcher used in last September's attack on the MI6 head quarters in London is believed to have been made by Yugoslav Defence Industries and sold by Serbs to the Real IRA. Ireland's Gardai police force discovered last year that the Real IRA had sophisticated Russian RPG18 launchers whose rockets can pierce tank armour.

Last July Croatian police discovered an arms haul destined for the Real IRA that included 10 RPG18s in the town of Dobranje, on the border with Bosnia. A similar shipment, also thought to be destined for Northern Ireland, was found in Slovenia.

Intelligence war puts Real IRA on the back foot
http://www.observer.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,545644,00.html

MI6 hopes an elaborate undercover operation overseas will deal a crushing blow to terrorists, reports John Hunter
Special report: Northern Ireland

Sunday September 2, 2001
The Observer

The British secret service operation that netted three alleged Real IRA members in Slovakia two months ago was planned in the aftermath of a rocket attack on MI6's London headquarters last September. Nobody was injured and little damage was caused by the hastily-fired rocket, but the incident was a major propaganda boost for the Real IRA and a blow to the intelligence services.

The rocket was a RPG22, considerably more advanced than the RPG7s previously used by the Provisional IRA. Manufactured either in Bulgaria or Russia, it had been obtained in the former Yugoslavia, which is awash with surplus weaponry.

On Friday, three Irishmen were remanded in custody at London's Belmarsh magistrates court charged with trying to procure more arms and explosives in Slovakia.

The court heard that an elaborate undercover operation by British intelligence agents had started last November, when contact was made with an alleged Real IRA member, known as Karl, but believed by the prosecution to be Irishman Michael McKevitt, who is not now in Britain.

Meetings followed in Hungary in February, March and April, during which the three men now under arrest requested arms, explosives and £15 million sterling, under the impression that the undercover agents represented the Iraqi regime, says the prosecution.

At a final meeting, on July 5, in Slovakia, attended by the three Irishmen and the bogus Iraqis, a detailed discussion of their requirements took place, Friday's court hearing was told, and the trio were arrested by Slovakian police. There were few problems in transferring the men from Slovakia to the UK last week because of an extradition treaty between the two states.

British intelligence agents are expected to give evidence at the trial.

Offers of the kind of weaponry allegedly discussed would be a major attraction to the Real IRA, particularly as they were apparently going to be supplied free, courtesy of Saddam Hussein.

The Real IRA is said to be so cash-strapped that one of its leading bomb-makers, previously full-time with the Provos, has had to take a day job. Big robberies have proved difficult for the organisation because of paid criminal informers.

The Real IRA was also hard hit by the seizure in Split, Croatia, last year of a major arms shipment already paid for with cash earned primarily from smuggling cigarettes and other contraband. It is believed that the British intelligence services and the Irish Garda were involved in the seizure, which included seven RPG18 rocket launchers, dozens of AK assault rifles and blocks of demolition explosive, known as TM500. In 1kg blocks, TM500, detonated electronically, can be used on its own or to set off huge, home-made fertiliser explosives of the type used in the Omagh massacre.

The haul also included frequency-hopping transmitters, previously used by the Provisional IRA for remotely-detonated roadside bombs to hinder British Army electronic devices, which block detonation signals. Possession of the devices worries security forces on both sides of the border.

The Real IRA is believed to have used 'hoppers' in a bomb attack on the cross-border railway line over a year ago. The device was detonated by a mobile phone. The hoppers came in a shipment from Croatia in autumn 1999, which included TM500 explosive and RPG rocket launchers.

One of the rocket launchers, an RPG22, was abandoned in an abortive attack on a Co Tyrone police station in February last year, the first evidence that the Real IRA had them. This advanced rocket launcher, manufactured in the mid-Nineties, can penetrate up to six inches of armour plate or a metre-thick concrete wall.

Similar weapons were captured in a Garda raid in Stamullen, Co Meath, in October 1999. TM500 explosives were used in two London bombings last summer.

The security services will consider the prosecution a major coup if Fintan Paul O'Farrell, 37, Declan John Rafferty, 41, and Michael Christopher McDonald, 44, all from Co Louth, are convicted.

In the Republic, the authorities consider that they have inflicted major damage on the Real IRÅ through close surveillance and co-operation between security services in Dublin, London and New York.

Despite this, the Real IRA stands to reap the harvest from hardline Provo supporters disenchanted by the stale-mate in the peace process.

Real IRA suspects extradited from Slovakia guns deal
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,2763,544818,00.html

Nick Hopkins, crime correspondent
Friday August 31, 2001
The Guardian

Three suspected Real IRA men were extradited from Slovakia to Britain yesterday after their arrest two months ago for allegedly attempting to set up a guns deal.

The three, aged 35, 41 and 44, were arrested by Slovak police on July 5 under an international warrant issued by the Home Office at the request of Scotland Yard. The prisoners, all from Co Louth, Ireland, were flown to London yesterday and charged with offences under the Terrorist Act 2000. They will appear before Bel marsh magistrates in south east London today.

The men were arrested in the spa town of Piest'any, following an undercover operation that is understood to have involved MI5 officers posing as Iraqi arms dealers.

At the time of the arrests, two of the men were named as Mickey McDonald and Declan John Rafferty. MI5 began its exercise after receiving intelligence that the Real IRA was looking for a "rogue" state that would provide it with arms. Officers from the service allegedly posed as Iraqis willing to supply weapons and explosives to the three men. Other officers are believed to have pretended to have been European arms dealers.

Scotland Yard refused yesterday to discuss specific offences, but a spokesman said: "Three men were extradited from Slovakia to the UK and were charged with offences under the terrorism act. They remain in police custody at a central London police station."

• David Trimble, the Ulster Unionists' leader, last night said that after the recent arrest of three other Irishmen in Colombia, republicans had "a mountain to climb" to regain the confidence of other parties in the peace process.

Real IRA arms purchasing in Croatia indicates a change of tactics
http://newsite.janes.com/security/international_security/news/jtsm/jtsm000823_1_n.shtml

WHEN police seiz ed weapons in Croatia in July destined for the Irish Republican paramilitary group, the Real IRA (RIRA), the cache included seven anti-tank weapons of the RPG-18 type. This indicates that the RIRA plans to continue targeting security installations in Northern Ireland (NI), especially those of the British Army.

The RIRA, a hardline group which broke away from the mainstream IRA in late 1997 in protest at the latter's ceasefire, initially had a policy of attacking "economic targets" by setting off car bombs in town centres in NI. This culminated in the Omagh bomb atrocity of August 1998 which claimed 29 lives. Faced with an enormous backlash in Ireland, the RIRA was shamed into calling a ceasefire.

Resumed hostilities
However, in recent months, without formally declaring that its ceasefire is over, the RIRA has resumed hostilities, but this time it appears to have altered its tactics. It appears that the group has moved away from bombing town centres and instead begun concentrating on attacks on security installations. There have been a number of such incidents, but no casualties. In one abortive assault, the attackers were planning to use a rocket launcher of the type found in Croatia, but the authorities seized it.

The RIRA may be working on the assumption that attacks on police/military installations are far less likely to alienate potential support among the Nationalist community, than indiscriminate bomb attacks in town centres which may kill civilians from the very community in which they are trying to drum up support. In Omagh, for example, the bomb killed an almost equal number of Catholics and Protestants.

This is not to suggest that the RIRA has totally ruled out bomb attacks on "economic targets" in NI - but it is likely that in the future it would be much more careful to avoid massive civilian casualties, which are counter-productive to its cause.

It is also highly unlikely that the RIRA intended such a heavy death toll at Omagh - bungling by inexperienced operators is a more likely explanation.

Meanwhile, it has pressed ahead with its policy of targeting the UK mainland. As Terrorism and Security Monitor suggested it would ('Is London bomb a prelude to RIRA blitz?,' June 2000), the RIRA has been using bomb incidents and bomb warnings to disrupt public transport in London. In July, two bombs left at Ealing and Whitehall forced Underground stations to close. At that time we also speculated that the source of their weaponry was former Yugoslavia. This has also been borne out by events.

New sources
The arms find in Croatia has underlined how Irish Republican paramilitaries have had to find new sources of arms in recent years. Traditional sources of clandestine arms shipments have either been closed down or have become more problematical - forcing the paramilitaries to diversify and explore new opportunities for procurement.

As they embrace international respectability, neither Libya nor elements in the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) are willing nowadays to supply arms to Irish Republican paramilitaries as they did in the past.

The fall of Communism in Eastern Europe also disrupted certain potential sources. For instance, in 1971 a senior IRA figure, the late Dáithí Ó Conaill, was able to buy 4.5 tons of small arms from the Czech state arms marketing company, Omnipol, in Prague with few questions asked - the consignment was later seized in the Netherlands. Such a transaction on behalf of an illegal group would be inconceivable nowadays under the democratic government in Prague.

The United States, with its sizeable Irish-American population, was for decades a traditional source of arms for the IRA but many gun running operations have been disrupted due to the pro-active policy of federal agencies of stemming the flow of illegal weapons to Ireland.

While the RIRA has a small support group which raises funds for it there, the US always had its limitations as a source of supply - handguns and assault rifles were readily available, but it was not as easy to acquire 'heavier' material, such as rocket launchers or surface-to-air missiles.

Mafia-controlled trade
By comparison, the former Yugoslavia was seen as a more promising market. As a result of the recent civil wars, there is a flourishing black market in military hardware and it is possible to buy almost anything a paramilitary group would need, including handguns, assault rifles, explosives, heavy machine guns and anti-tank weapons.

The trade is controlled largely by members of the Croatian and Albanian mafia, and there are many small ports on the Dalmatian coast, near the Croatian port of Split, from where illegal weapons can be shipped across the Adriatic to Italy.

The RIRA probably considered that the logistics of smuggling weapons back to Ireland are easier from Croatia than the US. Once across the border into the common travel area of the European Union with arms hidden in the back of a car, truck or camper van, there is a clear route back to Ireland by road and ferry with a reasonable chance of evading detection.

Gardai intelligence
Last year gardai (police) in the Irish Republic, who constantly monitor the RIRA, gathered intelligence information indicating that the RIRA chief, a former IRA Quartermaster General, had travelled to former Yugoslavia to set up an arms pipeline. Weapons were smuggled into Ireland including an RPG-18.

The first clear evidence came in October 1999 when gardai raided a bunker in County Meath and seized a cache of RIRA arms of a type never seen in Ireland before. The cache seized in Croatia, in a truck parked in a warehouse in the town of Dobranje, about 40 miles southeast of Split, included seven RPG-18-type weapons, as well as AK-47 rifles, a sizeable quantity of ammunition, and 20 packs of Yugoslav-made military explosive.

It is believed the weapons originated in Bosnia Herzogovina, and were then smuggled across a very porous border into Croatia. There is also an unconfirmed report that the RIRA has procured a machine gun capable of anti-aircraft fire. If this is correct, then British Army helicopters, which are vital to military operations in South Armagh, might become a RIRA target.

Security sources in the Irish Republic believe that the fringe Republican group, the Continuity IRA (CIRA) worked with RIRA to set up the arms pipeline from the Balkans, and that the traffic was fuelled partly by a cigarette smuggling racket. A former Irish aid worker in the region has become a suspect.

When the RIRA was launched, it stole arms and Semtex from IRA stores. It is understood that the IRA has now secured its dumps to prevent any further pilfering. Now with the Croatian pipeline disrupted, it remains to be seen where the RIRA will turn in the future to procure its military equipment.

Real IRA ready to blitz Britain
http://www.observer.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,403130,00.html

Terrorists prepare for mainland offensive

Special report: Northern Ireland

Henry McDonald
Sunday November 26, 2000
The Observer

Terrorists of the Real IRA are poised to launch a pre-Christmas bombing blitz in mainland Britain in an attempt to wreck the peace process and provoke a return to violence with loyalists.

The news came as it emerged yesterday that police have uncovered a secret arms cache in Derry believed to have been hidden by the breakaway republican faction. Two men and a woman were arrested during a raid on a house on the Galliagh Estate in the city. Police seized seven guns, including assault rifles and chillingly an improvised sniper's rifle with ammunition. In incredible scenes after the raid, a mob of about 150 encircled the police and threw petrol bombs, stones and bottles. One man was arrested.

Unionist politicians and officials from Sinn Fein pointed the finger at the Real IRA for hiding the weapons which could have been used in an attempt to derail the peace process.

Amid the heightened concern of a Real IRA threat security sources have told The Observer that the extremist terrorist group is planning to intensify its highly professional campaign that has seen an attack launched every 12 days since the ceasefire began.

Last week David Veness, Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, held talks with his Royal Ulster Constabulary counterparts on the Real IRA threat to London. They discussed the recent attempt by the group to smuggle a 500lb bomb into London in a horsebox and talked about the increasing likelihood of a new mainland bombing campaign.

The group, which was responsible for the Omagh bomb two years ago, has carried out at least 21 attacks, along with scores of firebombs and hoaxes since February.

Its activities yesterday prompted the British and Irish governments to ask the United States to place the Real IRA on a list of designated terrorist groups. This would give US law enforcement agencies extra powers to secure convictions and curb the group's fundraising activities.

The Real IRA's 'one every dozen days' terror campaign has been timed to synchronise with highly publicised political and cultural events across the UK. The terrorist group caused traffic and rail chaos on the day of the Queen Mother's Centenary Pageant last July, when they left a bomb on the railway line at Ealing Broadway Station. The organisation blew up a hotel in Co Tyrone on the morning of the Drumcree march, the most controversial loyalist parade in Ulster's marching season.

Security sources believe the lack of significant casualties was due only to the inexperience of recent recruits - described by army officers as 'lilywhites' - rather than any lack of will among Real IRA planners and engineers.

Many of the weapons used in recent attacks came from the Balkans. Real IRA envoys, including a South Armagh man who had previously worked in the former Yugoslavia as an aid worker, cut a major deal with Croat arms dealers last year. Several small shipments were sent to Ireland via Amsterdam and included Russian-made RPG-22 rocket-launchers. One of these weapons was used in the attack on the MI6 headquarters at Vauxhall Bridge in London two months ago.

One senior military source singled out the attack on the Magilligan army camp in Co Derry as an example of the Real IRA's capability. On 12 September, a two-man Real IRA unit used a powerboat to cross Lough Foyle from Co Donegal in the Republic and penetrate a perimeter fence before leaving an 80lb booby-trap bomb in an army hut. One Royal Irish Regiment soldier was slightly injured in the blast.

'The Magilligan attack demonstrated real guts and professionalism. The only thing they didn't have was luck. It also showed that the Real IRA is politically calculating. By killing British troops they can say they are attacking the British presence.

'But they also know that taking out local guys from Protestant areas is likely to bring the loyalists back into play. If the loyalists start attacking the Catholic population in revenge, it puts up a challenge to the Provisional IRA to strike back,' said a source.

The terror group has also used drug dealers to ship guns into the Province. A drug dealer from Newry, Paul 'Bull' Downey, sold the Real IRA a cache of Uzi sub-machine guns, machine-pistols with silencers, .32 revolvers and Dilinger handguns last year. The Provisional IRA later abducted Downey and shot him dead.

The intensification of Real IRA activity since February is one of the factors in the stalemate over demilitarisation and the peace process. A senior British Army source said the military wanted to reduce the number of troops to a peacetime garrison of 8,000 - fewer than the number of soldiers in the Province before 1969.

The Army and RUC wanted in the short to medium term to maintain the 13 hilltop fortresses in South Armagh, despite Sinn Fein demands that they be dismantled.

Republicans complain that the posts, which overlook the dirt roads of South Armagh, are an irritant to local farmers and provide propaganda for dissidents who claim the peace process has brought no change to the region. Jim McAllister, a Sinn Fein veteran from the IRA stronghold of Crossmaglen, said the posts and heavy presence of British troops on the ground was shaking the local republicans' faith in the peace process.

'Many republicans in this area are saying there are more Brits on the ground and in the air than at any time since the ceasefires. They are questioning the British intentions, asking if they really want to demilitarise or even [want] peace,' McAllister said.

The upsurge in Real IRA operations - the Army describes it as the 'second phase' - is a remarkable turnaround for a terror group that was an international pariah two years ago.

Outrage over the Omagh massacre - in which 29 killed - forced the Real IRA to call a temporary ceasefire and led to pickets outside the Dundalk home of its founder, the former Provisional IRA quartermaster-general, Michael McKevitt.

While the Army insists it wants to return to 'normalisation' in the Province, the Real IRA's campaign stymies further moves to dismantle the military apparatus in areas such as South Armagh. Whether it is rockets and bombs in London, or mortars and incendiaries in Northern Ireland, the Real IRA continues to have an impact on the peace process.

They have launched an attack every 12 days. These are some of them...

30 June

Bomb left on Belfast-Dublin rail link in South Armagh. A secondary one almost killed bomb disposal officers.

7 July

Car bomb explodes outside an RUC station in Stewartstown, Co Tyrone, coinciding with first day of loyalist standoff at Drumcree.

19 July

London Tube station bomb sparks transport chaos on Queen Mother's centenary.

13 September

Mortar fired at RUC station in Armagh city, close to local primary school.

20 September

RPG-22 rocket is fired at the headquarters of MI6 in London, causing knock-on traffic and railway disruption.

Real IRA damaged by gun range find
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,261295,00.html

Irish police believe raid on Omagh bombing group narrowly missed catching its leaders

John Mullin, Ireland Correspondent
Saturday October 30, 1999
The Guardian

The leader of the Real IRA, the dissident republican group behind the Omagh bombing, had a narrow escape last week. He was drinking in the Huntsman Inn with another leading hardliner as armed gardai raided the outfit's training camp two miles away in Co. Meath. Had they known, Irish police would have waited. They now believe that he was about to head to the underground firing range, where recruits as young as 14 where being drilled.

But detectives still believe their dramatic operation on Wednesday last week has put paid to the Real IRA's immediate plans to return to violence. The group called a ceasefire soon after killing 29 people at Omagh, but the RUC and Garda were fearing an imminent attack on security forces in Northern Ireland.

As well as arresting 10 people at the recently converted wine cellar, police recovered three guns.

Seven people were charged with weapons offences. They were remanded in custody at the special criminal court in Dublin on Wednesday, the first time tighter legislation on bail has been applied in the Irish Republic.

The director of public prosecutions is considering files on the three others. They include the 14-year-old.

Detectives, devoting less time to the Provisional IRA, believe their surveillance operation on dissidents is paying dividends. They have penetrated the Real IRA, receiving good intelligence.

But surveillance is imperfect. One former IRA prisoner close to the dissidents said yesterday: "They cannot keep tabs on everybody all the time. It only takes a couple of people to park a car."

The Real IRA leader slipped out of the Irish Republic this year, bound for eastern Europe. The reason is now clear.

Two of the seized guns were Czech made. The other was an AK-47 from Yugoslavia. They also found a Russian-made RPG 18 rocket-launcher, six ready-to-use bombs, also from Russia, and 36 detonators, often the most difficult component of a bomb to source.

The discovery proves that the Real IRA leader, a former quartermaster of the IRA, has opened up a new source of supply. And, despite heavy surveillance, he was able to ensure the weapons came into the Irish Republic.

Intelligence sources believe the Real IRA leader has also successfully imported a heavy duty machinegun capable of bringing down an army helicopter.

Although the Real IRA leader knows where the IRA arms dumps are, there is no evidence yet he has tried to take guns from them. The IRA's AK-47s are Rumanian or Russian-made.

But Gardai seized 2lbs of Semtex from the Real IRA in Co. Wexford earlier this month. They think it came from an IRA dump.

A dissident republican said yesterday: "It's hard to steal guns because they are readily quantifiable. But who is going to miss a couple of pounds of Semtex out of a huge batch?"

The IRA's chief of staff is furious at the dissidents. His hands are tied because of the political backlash to breaches of the ceasefire, and the doves within the IRA are fighting to stop retribution. Some Gardai are privately disappointed.

One security source suggested the Real IRA now has well over 100 recruits, including members of the now almost defunct Continuity IRA, some people from the Irish National Liberation Army, and disenchanted IRA members. He believed that the outfit was close to outstripping the IRA in the Irish Republic.

Others deny that. They put the number at 100, a rise of 20 in the past year, boosted by idealistic youngsters, like those jailed over a foiled, amateurish campaign in London last year. Only two bomb-makers from the Continuity IRA are experienced recruits.

An ex-IRA prisoner loyal to the Sinn Fein leadership believes the flow of intelligence to the security forces indicates that the Real IRA has low standards when it comes to accepting members. He is dismissive of the group, but some Sinn Fein supporters believe its activities are restricting the IRA on decommissioning.

The Real IRA is strongest south of the border. Republicans there tend to have a more romantic view, compared with the pragmatism adopted by those who have lived with The Troubles for 30 years. But it is attempting to grow in Northern Ireland, and is increasingly confident.

It refused IRA orders to cancel a recruitment meeting in Derry, sparking a bizarre tit-for-tat kidnapping two months ago. Security sources say that it has also recently aped the IRA's cell structure.

But there are brakes on the Real IRA's development. One is a lack of funding, with Martin Galvin, a former director of Noraid, the republican fund-raisers, failing to attract finance in the United States so far .

Another is an absence of community support.

• A man who lost three fingers after a bomb that he was transporting through Belfast exploded prematurely was jailed for seven years by the anti-terrorist special criminal court in Dublin yesterday.

Gerard Moyna, 45, unemployed, of Belfast, fled across the border to Co. Donegal after the blast.

He pleaded guilty to the unlawful possession of 2.28 kilograms of Semtex, a timing unit and two detonators.