Last convicted terrorists freed under Northern Ireland accord

LISBURN, Northern Ireland - The final convicted terrorists freed as part of Northern Ireland's compromise for peace strode out the prison gates Friday, some expressing ''true remorse'' for their victims and others declaring themselves ''unbowed and unbroken.''

The 86 inmates - among them some of the province's most notorious bombers and mass murderers - were greeted by their paramilitary comrades with champagne and confetti, cheers and chants, and lots of partisan flag-waving.

Their release brought to 428 the number of prisoners granted early paroles in one of the most bitterly opposed provisions of the province's 1998 peace accord.

''It is our hope that we will prove to be the last generation forced to war in defense of our community,'' the newly freed members of the Ulster Freedom Fighters said in a joint statement read outside the creaking exit turnstiles of the anti-terrorist Maze prison near Lisburn, southwest of Belfast.

The statement added that members of the banned pro-British paramilitary group offered their ''abject and true remorse to the innocent victims of this conflict.''

Jim McVeigh, the Irish Republican Army's leader in the Maze and the only prisoner to address reporters, described the 48 IRA inmates released Friday as ''unbowed and unbroken.''

McVeigh added, however, that members of the outlawed group ''offer the sincere hand of friendship to everyone who is prepared to help build a new future for all of our people.''

The early paroles started mere months after the striking of the peace agreement in April 1998, granted to eligible prisoners affiliated with paramilitary groups observing cease-fires.

Among those released Friday were Sean Kelly, part of an Irish Republican Army team that killed nine Protestants at a fish shop in 1993, and Torrens Knight, a member of the Ulster Freedom Fighters squad that took the lives of seven people one week later in retaliation.

Freed, too, was James McArdle, the IRA man who planted a bomb in London's Docklands in 1996, killing two people and injuring 40.

''I fully recognize this to be a difficult and bitter pill for many people to swallow,'' Peter Mandelson, Britain's senior official in Northern Ireland, said in a British Broadcasting Corp. radio interview.

He added, however, that it was essential that ''we bring these paramilitary prisoners back into the political process.''

Those words did nothing to placate William Frazer, who held a lonely protest outside the rusting prison gates.

Frazer, whose father was gunned down by the IRA in the group's stronghold of south Armagh, has founded the group Families Acting for Innocent Relatives.

Along with a number of Protestant politicians, he noted that the paramilitary groups were benefiting from the release provision without turning over their weaponry as stipulated in the peace accord.

''A lot of us could better swallow this bitter pill if these people had turned their guns in at the same time,'' Frazer said, as he posted pictures of released IRA prisoners carrying the tags ''Still Wanted for Murder'' and ''The Face of Evil.''

At the height of ''the Troubles,'' the Maze compound housed 1,700 men. Friday's mass release cut the number to just 16 inmates, who - vastly outnumbered by guards - eventually will be transferred to one of Northern Ireland's other two prisons.

Eight of the inmates released Friday walked out of those two prisons, with the remaining 78 released from the Maze.

Almost all the groups whose members were freed Friday made note of the Maze's starring role in the province's 30 years of sectarian strife.

The Ulster Freedom Fighters referred to themselves as ''prisoners of war in this sojourn place.'' And McVeigh paid tribute to the 1981 Maze hunger strike that led to the deaths of Bobby Sands and nine IRA comrades, kicking off violent street protests and eventual change across Northern Ireland.

The hunger strike also helped lead to changes in the Maze: By the early 1990s, prison cells were unlocked 24 hours a day and the various paramilitary groups ran their segregated wings with near autonomy, with guards needing to provide a day's notice to carry out any inspections.

When the last inmates are transferred out, the Maze will be kept readied for contingency purposes. But the British government eventually must decide what to do with the sprawling facility.

Among those advocating turning it into a museum is Kieran McEvoy, assistant director of the Institute of Criminology at Belfast's Queen's University.

''It is one of the most important historical sites of the conflict,'' McEvoy said. ''It would be a shame to bulldoze away an uncomfortable or unhappy past.

''In South Africa and other parts of the world, there are examples of prisons becoming symbols of peace and reconciliation after the mistakes of the past.''