Sinn Fein accuses Government over peace process
Sinn Fein today accused the Government of damaging the Northern Ireland peace process by turning a blind eye to sanctions put on republican ministers by Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble.
First Minister Mr Trimble banned Sinn Fein’s two Stormont Ministers - Martin McGuinness and Bairbre de Brun - from attending meetings with their Dublin counterparts in a bid to pressure the IRA into decommissioning weapons.
Sinn Fein chairman Mitchel McLaughlin said it was clear the Government was determined to save Mr Trimble’s skin from anti-Good Friday Agreement detractors in his own party and the Rev Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionist Party.
Mr McLaughlin said: ‘‘We can see a situation where the British Government have decided to turn a blind eye to any of the excesses of David Trimble’s behaviour, no matter how extreme, until the election contest at least.’’
A government failure to act again on Mr Trimble could encourage him to take even stronger sanctions ahead of the election, Mr McLaughlin predicted.
‘‘There is a danger that David Trimble may have taken the sign from the British Government that he can act with impunity and that he can further damage the Good Friday Agreement, and that there will be no action taken because the British Government have put a priority on his survival as the Unionist Party leader.’’
That was not in the interests of either the Agreement or the peace process, warned Mr McLaughlin.
‘‘That type of stort-termism is the acid that is eating away at people’s confidence in the peace process. What is needed is a British Government that is rigorously impartial and not pro-unionist,’’ he said on BBC Radio Ulster’s Inside Politics.
