Wednesday, 25 November, 1998
Friday, 27 November, 1998
Weekend, 28/29 November, 1998
Monday, 30 November, 1998
Tuesday, 1 December, 1998
Decisions now or process could 'crack up'-Mallon
The British Prime Minister Tony Blair was taking part in top-level talks this morning on new political institutions in Ireland as the two governments raced against time to bring the peace process back on course.
The British PM is due to become the first British politician to address a joint session of the Dublin parliament since the 26 Counties achieved independence from British rule in 1922. But this momentous event could yet be overshadowed if Mr Blair arrives without substantial progress to report-and there was little sign of that this morning.
In overnight news reports, however, unionists sought to promote an apparent understanding between Mr Trimble and the Irish Prime Minister on the remit of at least six out of the possible twelve cross-border bodies called for under the Good Friday Agreement. But as they continued to oppose up to six others-as well as attempting to veto the scope and structure of a new cabinet-style Executive-there were dire warnings that the peace process could collapse in little more than a week.
According to British newspaper accounts, the Ulster Unionists have accepted the creation of new bodies on inland waterways, transport, food safety, tourism, aquaculture, and marine matters-while resisting others, such as industrial development, agriculture, economic development and the Irish language.
But the north's designated Deputy First Minister, Seamus Mallon, dismissed the reports and said there are just ten days left for decisions to be taken on the vital issues before the process goes back to square one.
"I think this process is then in trouble," Mr Mallon said. "I think it will be going into a period in December when little or nothing will be done, then we will be coming back in January to start from a position of scratch. If these matters were not dealt with and agreed well before Christmas, said Mr Mallon, who is also deputy leader of the SDLP, then there was a potential "for this whole experiment to crack up".
The US government is also now reported to be increasingly concerned over the lack of movement in a peace process which has seemed paralysed since the summer.
After the creation of the Belfast assembly, unionists resurrected a five-year-old precondition demanding an IRA weapons handover before proceeding with the implementation of the rest of the Agreement. The Agreement has been in serious jeopardy since the end of October, the original deadline for the completion of the current work. Now most of the political parties and the two governments are working desperately to make up lost time before February, when the transfer of legislative powers from London to Belfast is due to take place.
"While everyone is reluctant to use the word ‚crisis' to describe the current state of the peace process there can be no doubt about the seriousness of the situation," said Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams MP.
He called on Blair to take a joint initiative with the Irish government to to halt the "drift" in the peace processs. He said Mr Blair should use his Dublin speech "to make it clear where he stands on the Good Friday agreement, which Adams insisted must be "honoured and implemented in all its aspects".
One of the issues is the number of Ministerial seats on the Executive, with the Ulster Unionists are uniquely demanding no more than seven departments, three less than that agreed by the other parties.
Speaking on British radio, Seamus Mallon expressed exasperation at the state of the talks amid unionist suggestions that informal agreements had already been reached and were ready to be announced.
"There is no understanding," he said. "I have been trying for months to get the Ulster Unionists to sit down and give their preferences into the departments we have to set up.
I have not succeeded in doing that yet. "I have been trying for months to get them convinced they simply do not have a veto on what will be the cross-border bodies and I have not been able to convince them of that yet."
Adams: Democratic peace settlement can be achieved
Gerry Adams yesterday said he believed the present stalemate in the peace process could be overcome, but he warned stagnation was eroding the "sense of hope and expectation" the Good Friday Agreement created.
Speaking as British Prime Minister Tony Blair was ending a high-profle visit to Dublin, the Sinn Féin president told Irish business leaders that the British government must wean unionists off the status quo towards "real engagement".
But he said that, without immediate progress and a decisive approach by the two governments, the agreement could slowly collapse.
"The lack of movement, the failures on agreements reached and commitments made, can only erode confidence in this process and give credibility to those who have argued that politics cannot deliver real change," he said.
Negotiations continued in Belfast yesterday to end the impasse over the creation of new political institutions but were still deadlocked last night, with unionists resisting the creation of at least two of the North-South structures to be established under the Good Friday Agreement. Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble is reported to have flatly rejected a body to promote trade on the island of Ireland, while also challenging the remit of a body to cover European Union schemes on a national basis. His party is also doggedly opposing the creation of a 10-member power-sharing executive for the Six Counties.
The Irish Prime Minister, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern is expected to go to Belfast next week for one last push to find a resolution before the end of next week. Trimble's departure overseas on Thursday has set the effective deadline for overall agreement because of the Christmas holidays and the amount of time needed for the preparation of legislation prior to the scheduled transfer of powers from London to Belfast next February.
Mr Adams, speaking for the first time to the Institute of Directors in Dublin, told business leaders that they also had a responsibility to end the divisions in Ireland-between the rich and poor, as well as between the north and south.
But he pointed the blame for the continuing stalemate in the peace process on Mr Trimble, adding that "no one could be really surprised" that the new First Minister had successfully stalled the establishment of the executive and, most crucially for nationalists, the all-Ireland ministerial council.
"Every element of the agreement which would have signalled change and a new beginning for nationalists is under attack from unionism," he said.
He said he was conscious of the difficulties and the fears that unionists face. But he said "nationalists and republicans too have our fears, uncertainties and our doubts. We want to see a pluralist Ireland which recognises and celebrates the diversity of all the people of the island."
The conciliatory tone of the two addresses yesterday by both Adams and Blair was being hailed as a significant step for peace efforts.
In particular, Blair's use of Gaelic, Ireland's first language, in a speech at the Dublin parliament was praised as a long overdue recognition by Britain of Ireland's distinct culture and identity.
In his address, which was broadly welcomed, the British PM called for an end to the historic animosity between the two nations and urged greater haste in implementing the Good Friday Agreement.
Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble said Blair's speech was "another milestone" for political progress.
He said: "I welcome the substance of the speech. It represents the growing closeness between the Republic and the United Kingdom."
Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghin O Caolain said he took the British Prime Minister's address "in the round, appreciating his affirmation of the need to ensure the implementation of all the essential pillars of the Good Friday agreement."
"We would expect that the implementation process would proceed without any further delay."
The full text of Gerry Adams speech to the Institute of Directors in Dublin can be obtained at the eMail address of the Irlandinitiative Heidelberg.
Orange hardliners arm for conflict
Ominous developments at the end of last week have raised fears of a major battle shortly at Drumcree church outside Portadown, where members of the Protestant Orange Order are laying siege to a Catholic enclave.
The re-emergence of a fundamentalist loyalist death-squad linked to the Orange Order known as the ‚Orange Volunteers', and the discovery of a stash of Russian grenades at premises belonging to a clergyman supporter of the Drumcree Orangemen, have led to new predictions of a major escalation of loyalist violence over Christmas.
Despite the passage of some twenty years, there has been little surprise that the Orange Volunteers have re-emerged in light of the Orange Order's ongoing siege of the Garvaghy Road.
Supporters of the Orange Order's efforts to march through nationalist areas have been behind 615 attacks already this year, including 24 shooting incidents and 45 blast bombs during a 10 day period in July; over 300 sectarian attacks on Catholic homes;
467 vehicles damaged with 178 hijackings; 632 petrol bombs thrown with a further 2,250 seized; and 4 murders.
In recent days, mobs intent on forcing their way through the nationalist Garvaghy Road in Portadown have massed larger and larger in the fields around Drumcree. After five months camped at the entrance to the nationalist area, the loyalists appear to be planning to take advantage of the expected lower security around the Garvaghy Road over the holiday period.
In photographs released on Friday, the ‚Orange Volunteers' released photographs of eight masked men sitting behind a table loaded with Russian RGD-5 grenades, a .22 rifle with a telescope, a sawn-off shotgun, several pistols and an Uzi sub-machine gun.
It is believed a sizable cache of weaponry from a larger loyalist organisation has been passed to the group, which is now claiming responsibility for actions last month previously blamed on another loyalist gang, the Red Hand Defenders. In a statement released with the photographs, the Orange Volunteers said their targets would include republican political prisoners freed under the Good Friday Agreement. "Ordinary Catholics have nothing to fear from us. But the true enemies will be targeted, and that's a lot wider than just Sinn Féin and the IRA."
It is thought the group may target isolated Catholic communities, particularly those which have opposed sectarian Orange Parades through their neighbourhoods, most notably the Garvaghy Road Residents Association in Portadown but also the Bogside Residents Group in Derry, the Lower Ormeau Concerned Community in Belfast and other such groups across the north.
Before issuing its statement, the Orange Volunteers held a chilling "Bible reading", using a passage from the Book of Deuteronomy.
The organisation also produced a "covenant" setting out its aims.
"We are defenders of the reformed faith. Our members are practising Protestant worshippers," the spokesman said. "We are prepared to defend our people and if it comes to the crunch we will assassinate the enemies of Ulster," the statement added.
The group completed its business with prayers led by what the spokesman called the group's chaplain. He would not say whether the "chaplain" was a Protestant minister.
Later on Friday, six grenades and six detonators from the same cache of arms were recovered by the RUC from an office in north Belfast owned by Protestant clergyman Clifford Peebles, a prominent supporter of the Drumcree Orangemen.
RUC Watch launched
Sinn Féin has launched an ‚RUC Watch' initiative. Six County chairperson Fra McCann said the initiative was set to monitor, record and take appropriate political action "challenging RUC violations against the nationalist community".
In a bid to influence the Patten Commission, the RUC is engaged in a highly political, high profile charm offensive across the Six Counties, said McCann, while largely unreported actions by the RUC which constitute gross human rights violations against nationalists are occurring daily.
"The RUC Watch initiative is your opportunity to place on record the facts about the RUC," said McCann.
The initiative comes at a time when the British government is under increasing pressure to disband the RUC. Scrutiny of the British government's record of human rights violations by the United Nations Committee Against Torture last week focused heavily upon the actions of the RUC. At the hearing the British were questioned about RUC brutality during interrogations, specifically the case of Davy Adams, the number of deaths in RUC custody, the lack of safeguards during interrogation at RUC centres like Castlereagh, human rights violations arising out of the use of emergency legislation and the deployment of plastic bullets. At the very core of the United Nations' criticism is the RUC.
"This UN report, like scores of others by Human Rights agencies over the past 30 years, has condemned the behaviour of the RUC, as well as the approach of the British government to the use of torture and of plastic bullets," said Gerry Adams. "It is further evidence of the logic of Sinn Féin's demand that the RUC be disbanded."
Clare Reilly of the United Campaign Against Plastic Bullets commenting on the UN report, reiterated the call to disband the RUC. Describing the deaths and injuries inflicted by the use of plastic bullets as "the reality of lethal weapons in the hands of a sectarian force," the UCAPB spokesperson said, "the RUC must be disbanded, plastic bullets withdrawn and a new unarmed police service established which reflects the makeup of the entire community."
In the last six months, since the signing of the Good Friday Document An Phoblacht has reported over 300 incidents within the nationalist community in which the RUC has been guilty of violating basic human rights. These violations have included almost 50 incidents of harassment against peaceful demonstrators, with a further four full scale orchestrated attacks on peaceful protests, over 70 incidents of harassment, intimidation and assault, over 30 serious injuries, including eight plastic bullet injuries, 16 cases where the RUC failed to intervene during sectarian attacks, 36 of intimidation during recruitment approaches, over 30 house raids and 70 arbitrary arrests.
"This represents the tip of the iceberg," says Fra McCann. "In the past nationalist communities have survived by absorbing rather than highlighting harassment by the RUC which occurs on a daily basis throughout all aspects of people's lives, at work, at home, on the way to school, during peaceful protests. If the hopes of the Irish people engendered by the Good Friday Agreement are to be realised, the actions of the RUC must be placed on public record. I would urge everyone whose rights are violated by the RUC to contact Sinn Féin's ‚RUC WATCH' initiative to register their complaint."
The RUC - the case against
The RUC must be disbanded and replaced by a new unarmed police force reflective of the community it serves, Sinn Féin said yesterday in its oral submission to the Independent Commission on Policing.
Sinn Féin's submission was delivered by an Assembly member for West Belfast, Ms Bairbre de Brun. The commission was also addressed by the party chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin.
Mr McLaughlin told the commission that the RUC had been a "failure from the start", with its reputation for shoot-to-kill adventures, collusion, torture and intimidation.
Presenting Sinn Féin's policing submission he said Sinn Féin was calling for the RUC's disbandment, an end to emergency legislation and the use of plastic bullets.
"The RUC is an integral part of the process of repression and suppression of nationalist political opinion and aspirations which has characterised this statelet from its inception," he said.
"The RUC routinely violates the human rights of nationalists and as we demonstrate in our detailed submission, has never been held to account for any of these actions either by the law or by any other democratic structure."
Mr McLaughlin pointed out that the RUC had been indicted by almost every human rights organisation in the world.
He added: "Policing is one of those issues which lie at the heart of conflict resolution. The successful outcome of this issue will be one of the litmus tests of the Good Friday agreement."
Mr McLaughlin accused the RUC of continuing to "fly in the face" of the agreement by its actions, including an incident at Silverbridge last week when live rounds were fired at nationalists.
He also cited the continuing use of plastic bullets, the recruitment of informers, house raids and arbitrary arrests. "Our main concern and that of most people of goodwill who want to see the agreement working is that these actions are part of a deliberate policy aimed at increasing community tensions in order to destabilise the peace process," he said.
"Therefore this commission who have been tasked to create an acceptable policing service have an immense responsibility.
"As representatives of the communities that have borne the brunt of the activities of the RUC, Sinn Féin has a unique perspective on these matters and we are here today to share that experience with you."
MEMBERSHIP
The party told the commission, chaired by the former Hong Kong governor, Mr Chris Patten, that the new force should have proportionate numbers of Catholics, women, and other minorities.
No obstacles should be put in the way of former combatants from all sides of the conflict joining the new force. "The adoption of strategies calculated to integrate ex-combatants from opposing sides into new security forces and policing services has been a significant feature of many conflict resolution situations," it said.
There are 13,000 RUC officers in the North but Sinn Féin argues that the new force should be 3,000 strong in line with normal policing levels. Former members of the RUC would have no automatic right to join the new service Members of the new police force should be banned from membership of the loyal orders, while a screening process could be set up to identify and exclude known human rights violators.
The force's culture should be impartial. "None of the trappings of unionism can be carried into a new police service. This includes the name. The British ethos of all the institutions of the state must change to reflect the Irish identity of nearly half the population in keeping with the Good Friday Agreement."
Sinn Féin recommended that police structures be devolved along the lines of the North's 26 district council areas. It said that once repressive legislation was repealed both North and South, there should be co-operation between the Garda in the 26 Counties and the new force "at all levels and in training and operational matters".
The party called for a new body, made up of human rights experts, Irish and British government representatives, unionist and nationalist politicians, the European Commission, lawyers, magistrates, and criminologists to appoint senior officers of the force and allocate budgets.
It said a new complaints mechanism totally independent from the police should also be introduced. It called for the establishment of restorative justice schemes to deal with anti-social behaviour so that offenders could be dealt with at a local level without the involvement of formal police and court mechanisms or physical punishment.
Sinn Féin stressed that the RUC must be disbanded. Ms de Brun said: "The RUC throughout its violent history has been seen and has seen itself as the armed guardians of the Union and for most of that time the paramilitary wing of the unionist government and party.
"The RUC has routinely violated, often on a massive scale, the rights of nationalists. It has always been and remains completely unrepresentative of the community as a whole. Nationalists have not and do not join the RUC because it is regarded as a sectarian paramilitary force established by the unionist state to maintain by force an undemocratic and corrupt system." Ms de Brun said the RUC had been responsible for at least 50 deaths yet not one officer had been convicted of murder. The Patten Commission should carefully study the Stalker-Sampson report on shoot-to-kill allegations, she said.
Nationalists widely believed the RUC colluded with loyalist paramilitaries in targeting Catholics and this belief was supported by the Stevens Inquiry, she claimed. She said hundreds of thousands of pounds had been paid out in damages to those ill-treated in RUC interrogation centres yet no officer had ever been successfully prosecuted or, as far as Sinn Féin was aware, even disciplined internally.
Ms de Brun also pointed to a UN report earlier this year which highlighted RUC "intimidation, harassment and hindrance" of defence lawyers. She urged the commission to call for the removal of all emergency legislation in the North so the new police force would be free of "the old coercive and failed strategies of the RUC".
The Sinn Féin submission-which is on the web at http://sinnfein.ie/documents/98polsub/ -- details in depth the party's proposals on other issues, including training, recruitment and the need to provide more accountability for a police service in the North.
Meanwhile, the members of the Patten commission were asked to reveal their religious identity when they went into the loyalist heartland of Ballymena in north Antrim last night.
One individual said two of the three commission members attending last night's public meeting, Mr Patten and Maurice Hayes, were Catholics, and asked to know if a third member of the commission at the meeting last night, American criminologist Dr Gerard Lynch, might also be a Catholic.
Mr Maurice Mills, a local unionist councillor, said the RUC was not a symbol of the state but a symbol of democracy and justice.
As nationalist representatives were shouted down as they spoke, another man proclaimed the unionist position: "We don't want a Northern Ireland Police Service. We want a northern Ireland police service that is called the Royal Ulster Constabulary".
Distraction - John Hume warns about unionist insistence
Nobel Peace Prize winner and SDLP leader John Hume last night warned that the unionist insistence on the decommissioning of IRA arms as a precondition for progress was wrong, and said the issue must be dealt with in the context of the overall Good Friday Agreement and parallel to other aspects of the agreement.
"I believe this decommissioning issue has been a distraction. The real issue here and I've said this before is when those who have used the guns say they have stopped, are they serious? Have the guns really been silenced? That's the real question," he said.
"Presumably, the reason people are asking for guns to be handed over in advance is to prove that violence is stopped - if they were playing games, they could hand over guns on Monday and buy more on Tuesday secretly," he said.
Speaking in University College Cork, Mr Hume pointed out that the weapons decommissioning issue had been discussed intensely during the negotiation of the Good Friday Agreement, but it was never a precondition to the rest of the agreement. He said that there was a huge historical and psychological factor involved in the handover of weapons which was often underestimated.
"There's a long tradition in this country. Look at the parties in your own part of the island - Fianna Fail - where are their guns? Fine Gael - where are their guns?
Where are the Democratic Left's guns?
"Where are the Unionist Party's guns?"-referring to the party that brought the gun into Irish politics in this century in 1912 when they protested against the democratic decision of what was then the Parliament of Britain and Ireland to give home rule to Ireland.
"Where are all those guns - does anybody know where they are? What is important is that they stopped using the guns - that's what's important," he said.