Violence must be abandoned forever, says unionist
Republicans must make clear that the transition from violence to democracy is real and permanent if devolution in Northern Ireland is to return, a senior Ulster Unionist stressed today.
As his party leader David Trimble prepared to meet Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams, former Stormont environment minister Dermot Nesbitt said his community was disillusioned not with the Good Friday Agreement but the way in which it had been implemented.
The former South Down Assembly member told a peace process conference at Stormont that republicans needed to convince unionists that violence would be abandoned for good.
“This is about an issue that goes to the very heart of democratic values, the protection of democracy against the threat of violence,” Mr Nesbitt said.
“The majority of the Unionist community – if not the whole community – has by and large accepted what is for them perhaps the hardest part, prisoner releases, but remains to be convinced that paramilitaries will keep their bargain to end the violence for good.
“The Agreement specifies that all parties must be committed 'to exclusively democratic and peaceful means" and oppose "any use or threat of force by others for any political purpose'.
“It adds that ministers shall ‘observe the spirit of the Pledge of Office’ which includes commitment to non-violence. Most strongly, all participants re-affirmed ‘their commitment to the total disarmament of all paramilitary organisations’.
“The UUP wishes to see these commitments delivered. It must be clear that the transition from violence to peace is for real and it’s permanent.
“The stability of political institutions requires there to be a normal society. This central point cannot be clearer, cannot be more compelling, and, above all, cannot at this time be ignored.”
The Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive have been suspended since last October when allegations of IRA spying threatened the future of the power sharing government.
Efforts to revive the Agreement faltered in May over the IRA’s failure to declare an end to all paramilitary activity.
Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair cancelled elections four days into the campaign despite public assurances from the IRA and Sinn Féin president Mr Adams that republicans would do nothing inconsistent with the Good Friday Agreement.
The UK government argued that an executive would not have been formed after an election without a clear statement from the IRA ending recruiting, training, weapons procurement, intelligence gathering, targeting and involvement in all violence.
A fresh effort to revive the Assembly has been launched over the past fortnight, with the British and Irish governments and the pro-Agreement parties hoping to build on Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble’s recent victory over his internal critics at a party meeting and the peaceful summer on Northern Ireland’s streets.
Mr Nesbitt insisted today that the issue of paramilitary activity went to the “very heart of democratic values” and was about “the protection of democracy against the threat of violence“.
With republicans insisting they need unionist assurances that they will not pull down the political institutions again, the UUP negotiator insisted his party wanted a locally elected, accountable government in Northern Ireland.
“I do not want to live in a failed community that cannot – like elsewhere in the democratic world – govern itself,” he said.
Mr Nesbitt told the audience of politicians and academics his party’s insistence on “acts of completion” from paramilitaries was “not one of unionism making demands upon republicanism.
“Nor is it merely about the implementation of the Belfast Agreement. It is much more fundamental than that.
“It is about an issue that goes to the very heart of democratic values, the protection of democracy against the threat of violence.”
