Decommissioning remains the touchstone

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, JULY 14. The nearly week-long peace talks on Northern Ireland were reported to be collapsed on Saturday, deepening the uncertainty over the future of the Provincial Assembly and the power-sharing Government set up under the Good Friday Agreement.

But in a face-saving move it was decided that informal negotiations should continue even as speculation grew that the Assembly might be suspended to buy time for an agreement which hinges on the Republicans' willingness to give up their arms. Analysts, however, warned against a prolonged political vacuum saying it would only help extremists who had already become more visible since the present crisis began two weeks ago with the resignation of the Ulster Unionist Party chief, Mr. David Trimble as head of the Government to force the IRA to start decommissioning.

The mood among the participants, as they emerged from the last round of talks this afternoon, was even more bitter and uncompromising than at the start of the ``summit'' on July 9 - their positions hardened by the recrimination over the Orange Parade-related violence in North Belfast on Thursday. While the Unionists blamed it on the IRA saying it justified their fears over continued possession of arms by the Republicans, the latter denounced it as a smear campaign and accused the police of rounding on Catholics who were trying to calm passions. This, they argued, ``confirmed'' their charge of police bias against Catholics and reinforced the demand for radical police reforms to make it more balanced and accountable.

The row, played out in front of TV cameras outside the scenic country mansion Weston Park where the talks were held, was an extension of the tough bargaining that went on around the negotiating table chaired by the British Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair and his Irish counterpart, Mr. Bertie Ahern. After the ``summit'' resumed on Friday, following a day's recess, Mr. Blair and Mr. Ahern spoke individually to leaders of various political parties in a bid to insulate them from the pressures of round- table discussions, but the deadlock on the key issue of arms decommissioning remained.

For Unionists, it was the bottom line before they could even consider moving forward on the Good Friday Agreement but Republicans insisted that decommissioning could not be isolated from their concerns over policing and the continued heavy presence of British security forces in Northern Ireland. The Sinn Fein leader, Mr. Gerry Adams, representing the IRA and mainstream Republicans, regretted that while they were under pressure to disarm, the ``solemn promises'' made to them by the British Government as part of the Good Friday Agreement had not been met. He said during the talks he had submitted proposals on police reforms, demilitarisation and human rights issues but on all these ``the assurances from the British Government have been short of what they publicly committed'' under the Agreement. The way the police handled the rioting in North Belfast using plastic bullets and water cannons strengthened the Republicans' case for changes in the composition and structure of RUC.

An angry Mr Trimble, who accused the IRA of ``orchestrating'' the violence in North Belfast for ``political reasons'', was uncompromising on decommissioning. He said there was only one issue on which there had been no progress in the past three years and it was decommissioning. It was a key issue, and absolutely the bottom line if the peace process was to be continued forward. His hardline position is seen as a bid to counter the influence of the hawkish Democratic Ulster Unionist Party which made significant electoral gains in the recent general and local elections at the expense of Mr. Trimble's UUP.

The crisis created by Mr. Trimble's resignation needs to be resolved by August 12, which would mark the end of six weeks provided under the Constitution to find a successor to him. If the deadlock is not broken by then, the British Government has only two options - to suspend the Assembly or call for fresh elections. The latter option is unlikely because it is fraught with the risk of hardliners repeating their impressive electoral performance.

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Section  : International
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