Republican plea as peace talks resume
Republicans entered new crisis talks aimed at restoring Northern Ireland’s power-sharing regime today and urged unionists: “Protect devolution and the IRA will disarm.”
As Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair geared up for a major push to secure a deal that will rescue the peace process, Sinn Fein chairman Mitchel McLaughlin insisted David Trimble must not threaten to tear down the Stormont Executive.
Mr McLaughlin warned the Ulster Unionist leader the “nuclear option” of imposing sanctions if the Provisionals continue to wage violence would be a grave error.
He said: “Demonstrating that the old days are gone in terms of supremacist politics will impress those who remain to be impressed that politics has finally taken over.
“If David Trimble can get his head around that, if he can give his unconditional support to working with us, he will achieve his cherished dream of seeing the armed organisations go out of business.”
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern arrived back at Hillsborough Castle, Co Down, early today after spending the night in Dublin.
He was greeted by Mr Blair as the two premiers and the pro-Good Friday Agreement parties tried to hammer out the outstanding issues and secure a deal.
With real progress made during yesterday’s intensive discussions, hopes were growing that a breakthrough could be reached.
To break the deadlock, agreement still has to be reached on the IRA’s disarmament process and republican resistance to unionist demands for some sort of sanctions to be imposed if the Provisionals break their commitment to a future free of violence.
The parties have been studying a 28-page blueprint tabled by the British and Irish Governments including proposals on demilitarisation, policing, criminal justice, decommissioning and on-the-run IRA prisoners.
With Mr Trimble warning that the talks would fail if tough sanctions are not installed to guard against future IRA activity, one option under discussion involved an independent monitoring body, made up of representatives from the British, Irish and US governments, to rule on paramilitary activity.
The document presented to the parties by the two premiers was aimed at ending the political stalemate and restoring the devolved institutions in time for the planned May 1 elections to the Stormont Assembly.
The package, split into five annexes, set out all the outstanding issues in the peace process, but the governments have insisted it is a work in progress rather than a finished product.
The power-sharing Assembly has been suspended since the discovery of a suspected IRA spy-ring at Stormont last October left unionists bitterly opposed to going back into government with Sinn Fein.
Only a huge and public disarmament gesture backed by a declaration that the paramilitary organisation’s war is over will persuade them that republicans are genuinely committed to peace.
Before the IRA agrees to going out of business by halting recruitment, the purchase of guns, and the gathering of intelligence, it wants confirmation from Mr Blair about a major new programme of demilitarisation.
Sinn Fein wants guarantees that thousands of troops would be pulled out of Northern Ireland, along with the dismantling of Army watchtowers in republican areas.
Calls for policing and criminal justice to be devolved to the Stormont Assembly, a pledge to allow on-the-run paramilitary prisoners to return and moves on equality and human rights are also among the main Sinn Fein demands.
