Kin, fiancee of IRA slaying victim seek justice in US

BELFAST -- Six women who challenged the IRA over a Northern Ireland killing prepared yesterday to take their fight for justice to the United States, where key politicians are shunning the guerrillas' political ally, Sinn Fein.

The visit by the sisters and fiancee of Robert McCartney, a Catholic man stabbed by a gang including IRA members, comes as one leading Irish-American politician canceled talks with Sinn Fein chief Gerry Adams and another said the IRA should disband.

''It looks like this family are going to have to campaign at the highest level," Catherine McCartney said, referring to a meeting scheduled for Thursday with President Bush.

''People over there may have a romantic vision, but they are not stupid people -- if we can get to meet them and tell them our story I don't see there's any reason to doubt us on it."

In Belfast yesterday, a Sinn Fein deputy leader publicly criticized the McCartney family, warning that their relentless campaign for an arrest in his death could diminish support for their cause.

Martin McGuinness, who also is an alleged IRA commander, said: ''The McCartneys need to be very careful. To step over that line, which is a very important line, into the world of party-political politics can do a huge disservice to their campaign."

The comments came as Sinn Fein acknowledged that another of its party candidates was in the pub where IRA members launched the fatal assault on Robert McCartney.

The candidate, Cora Groogan, said she heard ''commotion" but saw nothing.

Catherine McCartney, 36, her sisters and Bridgeen Hagans, the dead man's fiancee and mother of his two young children, will travel today to Washington, where they will meet Senators Edward M. Kennedy and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Their presence is likely to add to the discomfort of Adams, who began a weeklong trip to the United States on Saturday. The Sinn Fein leader was already facing the cold shoulder from Bush, and yesterday, Kennedy said he would not meet him.

Earlier Representative Peter King, a New York politician regarded as sympathetic to Sinn Fein, said Americans were finding it hard to see a justification for the IRA's continued existence.

The McCartneys are to meet Bush at a St. Patrick's Day reception on Thursday. For the first time in a decade, Northern Ireland politicians have not been invited to the annual White House celebration.

In New York yesterday, Adams said he was disappointed that Bush did not invite him to the White House but still believed the United States was committed to the Irish peace process.

The IRA declared a cease-fire in its three-decade campaign against British rule in 1997. Although the bombings stopped, crimes such as ''punishment" beatings and killings continue.

Criticism like that made by the McCartneys is rare in Catholic areas, where the IRA metes out law and order for communities mistrustful of the mainly Protestant police force.

The family accuses the IRA of intimidating witnesses and hiding evidence after Robert's McCartney's murder outside a bar in January and insist the killers must be tried in court, rejecting an IRA offer to shoot the culprits.

Sinn Fein has declared support for the family's campaign and has appealed for witnesses to come forward. But the sisters, who say none of the 70 or so people in the bar that night have made useful statements to police, believe the party could do more.

Meanwhile, in Dublin yesterday, the widow of a police officer killed by the IRA rejected the apology issued by the outlawed group, calling it self-serving, dishonest, and nine years too late.

The 1996 slaying of detective Jerry McCabe has aroused exceptionally strong feelings in the Republic of Ireland, where the IRA rarely targets police officers. The IRA-linked Sinn Fein party for years has demanded that four men convicted of the killing should receive early paroles under terms of Northern Ireland's 1998 peace accord.

But in their statement issued from prison, the four IRA men -- Pearse McAuley, Jeremiah Sheehy, Michael O'Neill and Kevin Walsh -- declared they ''do not want our release to be part of any further negotiations with the Irish government."

The four men said they never intended to shoot McCabe and his colleague, Ben O'Sullivan, who was wounded. ''We deeply regret and apologize for this and the hurt and grief we have caused to their families," their statement said.

But McCabe's widow, Ann, said the IRA men's words were just sickening. ''It doesn't wash with me. It means absolutely nothing," she said.

She noted that their contrite words came during a week when the Sinn Fein-IRA movement is facing unprecedented US pressure to renounce crime and fully disarm.

Material from the Associated Press was included in this report.