Ulster peace process back to nought?

By Thomas Abraham

LONDON, FEB. 3. The British and Irish Prime Ministers held emergency talks today to devise a plan to rescue the Northern Ireland peace process. The two Premiers are anxious to avoid the return of Westminster rule and the suspension of all political institutions created by the Good Friday agreement.

According to the BBC, the Northern Ireland Secretary, Mr. Peter Mandelson, will make a statement to the House of Commons and could introduce legislation suspending the fledgling Northern Ireland Assembly and re-impose direct rule from London within days. Mr. Blair told Parliament yesterday that there had been ``insufficient progress'' by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) on decomissioning and said, ``Unless there is substantial progress there is serious difficulty.'' Both Britain and Ireland are trying to persuade the IRA to make some gesture that will assure the Unionists of its commitment to decommissioning but have made little headway.

The Taoiseach, Mr. Bertie Ahern, who met the Sinn Fein leader, Mr. Gerry Adams yesterday, asked the IRA to give ``an indication that decommissioning is going to be dealt with in some ordered way.'' Mr. Adams has indicated that he was trying to persuade the IRA to make some gesture. ``We are in intensive discussion with all sides to try and avert disaster,'' he wrote in Irish News. He added that he believed that ``the whole issue of arms can be satisfactorily resolved'' but warned that dissolving the Northern Ireland Assembly was not the right way to bring this about.

Sinn Fein is for all practical purposes the political wing of the IRA but maintains that it cannot speak or act for the IRA. Mr. Adams and Mr. Martin McGuiness are believed to be trying to get the IRA to move towards disarmament but have apparently been met with resistance from hardliners.

Technically, the peace agreement has set May 22, 2000 as the deadline for all paramilitary groups to disarm. But the Protestant Ulster Unionists wanted to see the first steps towards decommissioning before that and the First Minister, Mr. David Trimble had threatened to quit in the event of no progress by January 31.

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Section  : International
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