Bid to revive Ulster talks fails

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, MARCH 9. Yet another attempt by the British Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair, and his Irish counterpart, Mr. Bertie Ahern, on Thursday to revive the stalled Northern Ireland peace process failed to produce any result amid indications that no major initiative should be expected until after the general elections in May. There was no significant progress on either of the three key issues holding up the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement - arms decommissioning by the IRA, reduced British security presence in the province and further police reforms.

At the end of a day-long all-party talks at the Hillsborough Castle, just outside Belfast, even as Mr. Blair claimed that differences were ``narrowing'' down, the Sinn Fein Chairman, Mr. Mitchel McLaughin, called it a ``very unproductive day's work.''

While the Sinn Fein tried to make much of an IRA statement earlier in the day announcing its decision to re-engage with the international arms decommissioning body led by Gen. John de Chastelain, the Unionists shrugged it off as a ``publicity stunt'' saying that mere re-engagement was not enough and what they wanted to see was real progress on arms decommissioning - an euphemism for surrendering arms.

The Ulster Unionist chief and the First Minister of Northern Ireland, Mr. David Trimble, said: ``It is fairly obvious that this statement is simply a pre-emptive strike attempting to shift blame for failure on to others rather than a serious attempt at progress.'' He recalled that a similar decision was announced by the IRA last summer but its contact with the decommissioning body did not go beyond one telephone call. He gave no indication that he planned to lift his ban on the Sinn Fein Ministers attending cross-border meetings unless there was visible progress on decommissioning.

The Sinn Fein leader, Mr. Gerry Adams, on the other hand, thought the IRA's announcement was hugely significant and created ``space'' for reciprocal initiatives from the British Government and the Unionists. ``The question hanging over these talks is - is the space going to be used by the Prime Minister (Bertie Ahern) and the British Prime Minister?'' he said. He expected the British Government to respond to the Republicans' demand for scaling down security in Northern Ireland and further reforms of the revamped Royal Ulster Constabulary.

The IRA made it clear that its decision to re-engage with the decommissioning body would be successful only if the British Government delivered on its ``obligations'' on these two issues. Right through yesterday's marathon talks, the Republican complaint was that the British Government had not fulfilled its obligations under the Good Friday Agreement.

The talks, described as ``full and frank'', were marked by the ``blame game'' with the Republicans blaming the Unionists and the British Government, and the Unionists pointing their finger at the Republicans for the slow progress on the peace process. The participants, however, were conscious of the pressures on them from extremists from within their own ranks to either deliver or abandon the agreement.

The shadow of the Real IRA which is trying to usurp the Republican leadership from moderate hands loomed large over the talks with both sides hesitant to appear to make any concessions that could be exploited by extremists, particularly the Real IRA which has acquired a high profile after last week's daring bomb attack at the BBC's offices in London.

Mr. Blair acknowledged that there were issues which remained to be resolved but emphasised that the gap was closing. On police reforms, he expected progress by June.

On decommissioning, he said: ``We welcome the step that has been taken by the IRA today. But there is an expectation now that this must go on to be a substantial re-engagement with the commission for decommissioning.''

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Section  : International
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