Northern Ireland peace package put off

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, JULY 27. The British and Irish Governments' ``peace package'' for Northern Ireland, which was expected to be announced today, has been put off until next week amid further hardening of positions both among Unionists and Republicans. Mr. Tony Blair and his Irish counterpart, Mr. Bertie Ahern, had another round of talks today to finalise the package and later they urged political parties to avoid ``knee-jerk'' reactions.

Unionist hardliners upped the ante as two senior Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leaders, Mr. Jeffrey Donaldson and Mr. David Burnside, both MPs, called for abandoning the Good Friday Agreement saying they were not willing to share power with Sinn Fein so long as its military wing, the IRA, continued to hold on to it weapons. They asked the UUP leadership to pull out of the present power-sharing executive and join hands with other unionist parties such as Rev. Ian Paisley's hawkish Democratic Unionist Party to disscuss ``a new democratically accountable local administration.'' Mr. Donaldson, who has consistently opposed the Good Friday Agreement, declared that he had no faith in the peace package which he dismissed as an ``IRA wish list''. ``We've just had enough and we want to go right back to the drawing board.'' The two MPs in a joint statement said the peace process had been on its ``last legs'' for sometime because of lack of progress on arms decommissioning by IRA and ``we need a new peace process'' minus Sinn Fein.

The UUP chief, Mr. David Trimble, who had been the voice of moderation until recently but has now been forced to take a hardline, was quoted as saying that he supported Mr. Donaldson's views. His spokesman told The Guardian that there was a ``lot of anger and frustration'' at the way the British and Irish Governments had handled Sinn Fein with ``kid gloves'' instead of forcing it to deliver on decommissioning.

The sharp Unionist reaction follows leaks from the peace formula which, it is believed, does not directly address the question of decommissioning and instead offers ``concessions'' to Republicans on policing and demilitarisation as an incentive to disarm. The Unionists have denounced this as ``appeasement'' of Republicans and are insisting that nothing short of decomissioning would persuade them to return to the peace process. The Republicans too are reported to be unhappy with what they believe the package offers them. It is said to fall short of their demands for police reforms and reduced British security presence in Northern Ireland.

The present political crisis began on July 1 when Mr. Trimble resigned as head of the provincial coalition Government to force the IRA to disarm. Under the constitution, a successor to him must be found within six weeks and the deadline ends on August 12. If the stalemate persists, the British Government would be forced to either suspend the assembly or call fresh elections.

The two Prime Ministers, however, maintained that the crisis could still be overcome and asked the parties to consider the proposals ``carefully.'' ``I hope the parties give them their support and work with them as best as they possibly can,`` Mr. Ahern said.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : International
Next     : U.S. wants thorny issues out of racism meet