Wednesday, 2 February, 2000
Thursday, 3 February, 2000 Thursday/Friday, 3/4 February, 2000Premiers urged to uphold agreement
The British and Irish Prime Ministers are to hold emergency talks later today as last-ditch attempts to rescue the Irish peace process continued.
Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern are facing urgent appeals not to cave in to political blackmail by Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble, who has vowed to resign as First Minister and collapse the new political institutions by tomorrow unless his arms demands are met.
There are growing fears that the British government will today concede the Ulster Unionists' immediate goal of a second review of the Good Friday Agreement.
A statement is expected in the House of Commons later today from Britain's Peter Mandelson. Unionists are hoping he will announce the suspension of all political institutions created by the Good Friday Agreement and the resumption direct rule of the Six Counties from London, possibly as early as next week.
Meanwhile, the de Chastelain report on decommissioning, which was the subject of talks between Mandelson and Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Brian Cowen on Tuesday, has not yet been been made public. The unpublished report was the ostensible cause of the current crisis after Mr Trimble declared on Tuesday that it would not contain an account of an IRA arms surrender.
Among a series of top-level meetings in Dublin, Belfast and London over the last 24 hours, a Sinn Féin delegation led by Party President Gerry Adams MP met Bertie Ahern in Dublin yesterday.
Emerging from the talks, Gerry Adams said Sinn Féin had been anxious to assure that the institutions established under the Good Friday Agreement would not be collapsed or suspended. He said the Taoiseach and Sinn Féin were in agreement that such a development would be a "disaster".
Further discussions with Mr Ahern were taking place this morning, before the Taoiseach was due to fly to England's West Country to meet Tony Blair.
Mr Adams declared that Sinn Féin was doing everything in its power to avert a calamity but that its task was being made increasingly difficult by the actions and attitudes of unionist leaders.
He again warned that attempts to resolve the disarmament issue would be undermined if the power-sharing Executive is suspended.
"I remain wedded to decommissioning as an objective of the peace process," the West Belfast MP said.
"I also think that it can be achieved. I think the way it is being dealt with, particularly in the present time, is not helpful and is indeed disastrous.
"I think all of this is achievable through the political process and if people focus on trying to sort it out. I think if we can steady ourselves through this crisis, then this issue can be dealt with."
Ulster Unionists, meanwhile, continued to make demands from the IRA. UUP minister Reg Empey sought to deflect criticism by calling on the IRA "to free the entire community from the shackles in which we now find ourselves with regard to the disarmament issue."
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin's Six-County Minister of Education was continuing to carry out his duties despite uncertainty over the administration's future. Martin McGuinness was in Dublin today for a first offical visit to Dublin to meet his 26-County counterpart, Michael Woods.
The prospect of two nationalists making plans for the education of all of Ireland's children is anathema to unionists—and explains their determination to destroy the Good Friday Agreement.
The reality at the heart of the current political crisis is that it is not decommissioning which is the problem but the compromises contained in the Good Friday Agreement. Having effectively broken through every political deadline and succesfully held up the implementation of the Agreement for 18 months, David Trimble and his party are now threatening to collapse the entire process because they cannot change the rules on decomissioning.
Observers now believe that either David Trimble himself was never serious about his engagement with the Good Friday Agreement and is seeking a return to direct rule [while pocketing the end of Articles Two and Three and the Anglo-Irish Agreement], or else he is prepared to bring the whole show down at the behest of anti-Agreement unionists. Either way, the Ulster Unionists have this week brought the process to the brink.
Analysis: Adams: The Process Can Be Saved
The following is the text of an article by Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams MP, that appears in this weeks edition of the New York based Irish Voice.
To the casual observer or even those who should know better the current difficulties in the Irish Peace Process appear simple enough. It is all down to why the IRA has not decommissioned by now. This has been the hypnotic, all pervasive, drumbeat now rising to deafening loudness and drowning out al other logic.
As everyone knows, in a review of the process, Chaired by Senator George Mitchell certain agreements were made which led to an unprecedented move by the IRA to engage with the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning and the Ulster Unionist Party participating in institutions which they had boycotted since the Good Friday Agreement in May 1998.
The Mitchell Review was actually set up because the unionists, in a bizarre but successful attempt to face down the British government boycotted the new Assembly in July last year when London triggered the mechanism by which Ministers could be appointed. By their actions and their rejection of what was a Sinn Féin initiative the unionists successfully scuttled yet another effort by us and others to implement the Good Friday Agreement.
It is not surprising therefore that there was a huge welcome when, as a result of the Mitchell Review, the unionists were eventually persuaded, 18 months late, to go into the institutions. David Trimble did the right thing. But as always, like a cow that gives the good milk and then kicks over the bucket, the UUP, at the last minute, and totally outside the terms of the Mitchell review announced its own unilateral deadline for IRA disarmament.
So what is it all about? There are undoubtedly problems within unionism which finds it difficult to come to terms with the changes that are required if the Good Friday Agreement is to become a reality and if a transformation of the political landscape here is to be achieved.
Some of those within unionist activism have opted for the rejectionist anti-agreement demand for the Good Friday Agreement to be scrapped. These include the DUP who despite their rhetoric of outright opposition has non-the-less taken up their Ministries and committee chairs and are working within the Assembly and the institutions and with the other pro-agreement parties. The anti-agreement clique also includes elements within Mr Trimble's UUP. In my opinion, and despite the opposition within his own party David Trimble's leadership would have won majority support in the UUP for participation in the institutions at any time in the last 18 months if he had put such a proposition. True he would not have won unanimous support but what party leader enjoys such a mandate?
The truth is David Trimble never put such a proposition because his tactical approach to the Agreement, unlike the rejectionists, was to constantly renegotiate it, to whittle it down, to minimise and to protract the process. It wasn't Sinn Féin who persuaded the UUP leadership to enter into the institutions in December. We tried and failed. It was the British government and particularly Peter Mandelson who persuaded the UUP leadership to do the right thing. On remembrance Sunday weekend at the end of the Mitchell Review Mr Mandelson conducted an intensive lobby of the UUP. This followed the rejection by David Trimble of propositions contained in the Mitchell Review.
The result of this work and of persuasive arguments by others, including US President Bill Clinton was that the institutions came to life. Now Mr Trimble is saying that Sinn Féin is in default of that review because the IRA did not decommission by the 31st January.
Mr Trimble is wrong and he knows it. I can provide chapter and verse of the detail of Sinn Féin's position and it is the same position we have argued publicly and privately with successive British and Irish governments and others, including the unionists, for almost as long as I can remember. So, I repudiate absolutely any accusation of bad faith by us. On the contrary we acted in good faith and we continue to do so.
Even now at the time of writing, as Mr Trimble threatens to resign his position unless the British government pulls down the institutions, Sinn Féin is working away trying to save the process. We are in intensive discussions with all sides to avert disaster. In my view the whole issue of arms can be satisfactorily resolved and I am committed to resolving it. But proving that politics does not work is not the way to persuade armed groups. In other words this issue can be resolved and in my view will be resolved but only if everyone plays their part in a constructive and positive way.
The IRA cessation has lasted 5 years. At that time the leader of unionism James Molyneaux described it as the most destabalising thing to have taken place in 70 years. The demand for decommissioning came after this cessation and was no part of it. It has been used to cripple and retard and may indeed eventually hole this process below the water line.
Of course it would be simpler if the armed groups would just do what is demanded of them but it was never going to be that easy. But yet there are positives. On Tuesday the IRA in an effort to reassure unionism has said that it is committed to the peace process and that there is no threat to the process from it.
So guns that are silent, that are out of commission for five years, which belong to an organisation whose representative is engaged with the decommissioning body are going to be the reason or the excuse to tear down institutions which are barely 8 weeks old. Why?
Could it be that this is not about decommissioning at all?
Could it be that the unionists want a different agreement? That they imagine they have some short term advantage over Sinn Féin. That they can bring down this agreement and renegotiate another one more satisfactory and acceptable to them? Could it be Peter Mandelson will facilitate them in this?
One thing is for certain - within the next 36 hours or so the process can be saved. The de Chastelain report - essentially a progress report - will be published by then. There is no reason why it cannot be a positive report and why it cannot be taken up positively by the British government and by the UUP. That way the full implementation of all aspects of the Agreement is guaranteed.
There's another thing for certain. If the Unionist gameplan spooks the British government into suspending or collapsing the institutions - and there is no difference between suspending and collapsing - then like humpty-dumpty all of this will be very difficult to put together again, and decommissioning which the unionists make such a great fuss about is unlikely ever to be achieved.
Some political leaders see this peace process as about winners and losers. There will be no winners and the only losers will be the plain people of Ireland and our friends and supporters throughout the world. I say there will be no winners. That's wrong. Because of course the anti-agreement clique, those who are against the change, the reactionary bigots will have succeeded in dragging unionism back to their agenda.
Flash: Mandelson moves to suspend institutions
A Bill to suspend the Good Friday Agreement and reimpose direct rule from London will go before the British parliament tomorrow, according to an announcement tonight by Britain's Northern Secretary, Peter Mandelson.
But the process will take a few days and could be stopped if developments warranted, he emphasised. No definite date was set for the suspension of the Executive, but up to a week may now be available to defuse the crisis over a unionist move to back out of the Good Friday Agreement.
Mandelson made a direct appeal to Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble not to carry out his threat to collapse the power-sharing Executive and the other political institutions tomorrow.
"I hope you and your colleagues will not take precipitate action in relation to the executive and you will allow the events of the next few days to unfold before you make your final judgment," he told Mr Trimble. As Trimble's threat to resign as First Minister receded, top-level negotiations over his party's demands for an IRA weapons handover were continuing. In a fluid situation, the Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was on his way to meet Tony Blair late tonight.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr Mandelson paid tribute to the de Chastelain commission on arms and said its unpublished report pointed to a number of positive factors: "The ceasefires remain in place. The silence of the guns and the unequivocal support of the IRA and the other paramilitary groups for the political process have played a vital part in recent political advances.
"The assurance, repeated this week, that there is no threat to the peace process from the IRA is important and will be welcomed.
"However, the report also stated that there has not yet been any decommissioning of arms by any major paramilitary group. If this continues, it is totally unacceptable. Notably in the case of the IRA, it has to be clear that decommissioning is going to happen."
In remarks which c Republicans, he said a lack of "clarity" over decommissioning could lead to "a loss of confidence" in the institutions so that they "cannot be sustained".
Concluding his speech, he said it was possible "to rebuild the confidence in the institutions, to enable devolution and the other institutions to continue and to ensure that decommissioning starts.
"But, I stress, these three things are inter-dependent. We cannot partially implement the Good Friday Agreement. It is all or it is nothing."
Sinn Féin Preident Gerry Adams said he "utterly rejected" the political thrust of Mr. Mandelson's words. "If he suspends the institutions he will be in breach of the Good Friday Agreement. By his statement tonight Peter Mandelson has given notice that he is prepared to cave into the demands of the unionists. "This is no way to build confidence among nationalists and republicans. And it is a slap in the face to the Sinn Féin leadership who are engaged at this time in trying to save the very same institutions."
Ulster Unionist Michael McGimpsey said the process could not be sustained without an act of decommissioning by the IRA, but there was now no immediate need for David Trimble to resign. "David Trimble remains un-resigned at this moment in time. Unless circumstances dramatically change I don't see any necessity for him to resign given the undertakings we have had from Peter Mandelson today and indeed the undertakings we got from both governments before the process began."
Sinn Féin was tonight seeking a meeting with David Trimble. Mr Adams pointed out the party had been engaged in an exhaustive and intensive round of discussions with the two governments, the de Chastelain Commission "and others". He said the crisis could be resolved "if the political will is there".
"Sinn Féin is working tirelessly to save the process. We are in intensive discussions with all sides to avert disaster." But he said "the dogged insistence" of the UUP to keep to a deadline it set - "when it has broken so many previous deadlines" had raised concern that unionism was seeking a different agreement.
"It is clear that some certainly believe that they can bring down the Agreement and renegotiate another one more acceptable to unionists. Will the British government be faced down again by unionism? Will the unionist veto triumph once more? Will Peter Mandelson facilitate them in this?"
Thursday/Friday, 3/4 February, 2000
Mandelson's mad showdown with IRA
Over a decade of peace efforts could be undone next week in a bloody-minded game of brinkmanship by Ulster Unionists and British securocrats.
Although the Good Friday Agreement contains no provision for the British government to suspend the Agreement, the Secretary of State Peter Mandelson yesterday published—against the expressed wishes of the Irish government and the nationalist parties—detailed legislation to dissolve the new political institutions by Friday.
It was a high-risk bid by Mandelson to 'take on' the IRA over the issue of its disused weapons, currently buried in arms dumps across Ireland.
In a departure from his prepared speech to announce the legislation, Peter Mandelson antagonised Republicans by accusing the IRA of "betrayal" before a packed House of Commons.
Mandelson's remarks were all the more extraordinary in that the Secretary of State was engaged in an action which is prohibited by the Northern Ireland Act of 1998, the original legislation used to implement the Good Friday Agreement and which Mandelson is now seeking to rewrite.
Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams accused the Northern Secretary of undermining his discussions with the IRA to try to resolve the arms issue. He said Mr Mandelson's remarks in the House of Commons had been "disgraceful" and amounted to spin-doctoring for the Ulster Unionists.
"Myself and others in the leadership have been in intensive discussions with the Irish government and the British government and in regular contact with both other parties and with the IRA," Mr Adams said.
"That is far beyond my responsibility, far beyond my obligations and at a time when we were actually talking to the IRA what does Peter Mandelson do? He accused them of betraying the process."
It was confirmed today that Mr Adams is holding crunch talks with Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble, at a secret location, to try prevent the suspension or collapse of the power-sharing Executive.
But there are few hopes the talks can prevent the rapid downward spiral of events from reaching a disastrous climax next week. The rapid pace of the past week's developments have led at least one Sinn Féin Assembly member to suggest that a joint British/Unionist "understanding" is in place to push the peace process to the brink— or worse.
Gerry Kelly yesterday accused the British government of planning to suspend the Stormont Assembly and other new power-sharing institutions well in advance of Tuesday's move by David Trimble to withdraw his party from the new institutions. Kelly's remarks come after the publication by of the legislation which is to be used to suspend the Good Friday Agreement in London on Friday.
The legislation is twelve pages long, contains nine clauses and one schedule which has thirteen paragraphs.
Said Mr Kelly: "It is clear from the length and detail of this legislation that the British government has been working for a number of weeks on its preparation. From this we can see that suspension of the political institutions has been the intention of the British government for some time.
Mr Kelly said the peace process would have been better served "if the British government had spent as much energy in trying to avert the crisis rather then give succour to those who created it.
"It appears that the understanding which unionist leaders have talked about all week was between themselves and the British government over suspending the political institutions."
Into a volatile mix today came threatening comments from former British Prime Minister John Major.
Major said the situation was "deeply worrying" and admitted the IRA are "highly unlikely" to respond to the new arms demands. He ominously added that there could be "a little more violence", but a return to what "existed before" could be avoided—with luck.
"Even if there was a settlement I think that some people might move across to more extreme groups and there may be a little more violence," he said. But unless we are very maladroit or very unlucky I doubt we will go back to precisely the circumstances that existed before."
The former premier was condemned by Sinn Féin for his "negative contribution".
Assembly member Francie Molloy said Mr Major would long be remembered as the man who squandered the opportunity for peace presented by the IRA's 1994 ceasefire.
"It was Major's government which sought to wreck the process on a self-imposed precondition for decommissioning before negotiations even began.
"Given the history of his involvement, this latest negative contribution will surprise nobody," he said.
The escalating tension will come to a climax next weekend. Mandelson has set Friday as the deadline for the suspension of the new institutions, while the Ulster Unionist Party's ruling council meets the next day to consider a final decision on the institutions and David Trimble's near-mythical post-dated letter of resignation, which may yet be withdrawn.
Nationalists meanwhile are mounting impromptu protests outside the Ulster Unionists' Glengall Street headquarters and elsewhere to plead for peace. Despite miserable conditions, protestors today chanted held banners with one message: "make politics work - don't collapse the institutions".
Thursday/Friday, 3/4 February, 2000
British war machine busy in South Armagh
Newry/South Armagh Sinn Féin Assembly member Conor Murphy has called a major British Army operation in Killeen, South Armagh, this week as "deliberately provocative at this sensitive time".
Three British Army helicopters landed in a field on the Kelly Road, Killeen, at around 12 noon, remaining there for 15 minutes. Around 50 soldiers disembarked from the helicopters.
Cows grazing in the field were driven wild by the noise and military activity. Cows in a nearby shed were also driven into a frenzy, where an elderly farmer tried to control them. Several of the animals were in calf and others were distressed. The farmer, who suffers from a heart condition, was also seriously distressed.
Other helicopters also landed close the nearby Killeen School, after having hovered over the school for several minutes. Soldiers surrounded the farmer's property and the school.
After 2pm another two helicopters landed in the same Kelly Road field to lift the British soldiers who had remained in the field, once again disturbing the cattle. Several British soldiers remained and verbally abused the elderly farmer, who by this stage was in a very distressed state.
Assembly member Conor Murphy said it was "all too typical" of the British Army in South Armagh to engage in this type of "provocative display". Farmers in his constituency were "fed up" with the "continuous harrassment and accompanying damage".
"South Armagh is a militarised area where the only people with guns are British soldiers.
"Yesterday's incident also highlights the forgotten part of the Good Friday Agreement under which the British government is obliged to publish a schedule for demilitarisation. Almost two years after they signed that Agreement, they have not lived up to that obligation. It is about time commentators used their influence to persuade the British government to implement their part of the Good Friday Agreement."
Thursday/Friday, 3/4 February, 2000
Analysis: Silent guns pose no threat
After 70 years of partition and sectarian discrimination, people in the Six Counties have now been treated to sixty-odd days of a new power-sharing executive and all-Ireland institutions. If the Ulster Unionist Party leaders have their way, that will be the extent of the experience of those institutions and of moves towards equality and democracy.
Republicans have moved again and again in this process in an effort to accommodate others.
It was the IRA cessation of 1994 which laid down the challenge for politicians to devise a means to establish new political structures to bring a permanent end to political violence on this island. That organisation suffered defections by a minority within its ranks as a result of its quest to build a peace process.
Sinn Féin convened its membership to change its own party constitution in order to enter an Assembly which republicans never sought during negotiations, itself risking internal stresses and difficulties.
At the end of last year, the IRA appointed a representative to meet the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) and General John de Chastelain.
Republican leaders have patently stretched their constituency to the limit in an effort to meet British and unionist concerns.
Despite all of this, David Trimble has repeatedly moved the goalpsosts in relation to the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. He successfully prevented the implementation of that Agreement for over 18 months.
Last year, after reaching agreement on a way forward with both governments and the other parties at Downing Street, he effected a u-turn two days later and sought further preconditions.
After the subsequent Mitchell Review, when there was clear agreement between all sides on the way forward, he called a meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council and imposed new preconditions, including his own arbitrary deadline for decomissioning.
Trimble is now threatening to collapse everything that has been built up and he seeks to pin the blame on Sinn Féin.
Sinn Féin is not and has never at any stage been in default of the Good Friday Agreement. It has honoured all of its commitments under the Good Friday Agreement and in any of the subsequent negotiations.
Sinn Féin has never entered into any commitments which it could not keep. The party has always pointed out that decommissioning is a collective responsibility and was never in the gift of Sinn Féin alone to deliver.
The only way to successfully remove the gun from Irish politics is to demonstrate that politics can work in addressing the problems faced by society.
The IRA has stated that it poses no threat to the peace process. IRA guns are silent. Despite this fact, unionist leaders are prepared to dash the hopes of the Irish people, ostensibly over those silent guns.
David Trimble should be told that enough is enough. It must be made clear that it is unionist leaders who are threatening to destroy the current process. Neither the Irish nor British governments should bow to their threats.
A token too far
Jeremy Hardy, The Guardian
So the Irish peace process is in crisis. But it's not the peace, just the process
Northern Ireland: special report
One of the events of August's West Belfast Festival is the Black Mountain Walk. Local historian Terry Enright, whose son was shot by loyalists a couple of years back, guides a mixture of tourists, festival performers and Belfast folk up a paththat, no matter how trampled, has never come to resemble a path.
There are anecdotes, folk tales, history and good-natured wisecracking. Some of the jokes flying about are obscure if you've never been to prison or held an AK47. But the only slight sign of tension I have seen during the walk resulted from the fact that the Hare Krishna people's only song was starting to grate after two hours' hard walking, and they were pleasantly asked to give it a rest. You might think they got off lightly, but they had shared their satsumas.
The tour's climax is a look down the sheer drop at the back of the mountain. Before flashes of geography O-level enter your brain, I should tell you that it has nothing to do with glaciers, plate tectonics, oxbow lakes or rain gauges. An enormous quarry is eating the mountain to produce the white stuff that's painted on roads. Its owner has a licence to mine the whole beautiful thing out of existence.
The first time I saw this destruction, I asked an IRA veteran, "Can't somebody shoot him?" My companion looked at me in a kindly and amused way and replied, "We don't do businessmen anymore - that was the 70s".
Perhaps I should stress that this man was retired from the struggle, despite the British illusion that these people do it for a living and are addicted to the gun. Some commentators like to imagine that living in constant fear of arrest or death is a way of life that's hard to give up. I suppose that being on the run gives you an excuse for not doing much around the house, but most of us find in our 30s that we quite like staying in at night. I have not done extensive (any) research into this, nor would I presume, as the newsmen say, to "enter the mindset of the IRA", because it doesn't do to stare at people too intently in Belfast pubs, and apart from anything else, it's rude. But it seems to me that, if being an urban guerrilla were that much fun, there wouldn't be so many of them who are now doing other things.
But despite the fact that this veteran had hung up his gun, he could have mentioned my suggestion to someone on the army council if he had thought that the musings of an English media tart might be put on the agenda at their next meeting.
Today, the IRA is snowed under with exhortations to decommission some weapons. One wonders when one sees and hears these pronouncements exactly who is meant to be impressed by them. Fair enough, we are all paid to fill space, but should we British not remember that an amount of discord has resulted from our history of telling Irish people what to do?
Of course, many people are calling for decommissioning, not just British commentators and politicians. People want peace. But peace and the peace process are not necessarily the same thing. The peace process, we hear, is in crisis.
Not the peace, just the process. But this does not mean that a war process is beginning.
The IRA leadership has held together and has prevented a significant split, partly because of internal discipline and partly because there has been no decommissioning. Would we all be cheering if there were a gesture of decommissioning this afternoon and, tomorrow, another Omagh?
An alarming number of people say that there has to be a split sooner or later. Many of them would like this because it would mean IRA volunteers killing one another. It seems unlikely that there would be no ramifications for anyone else.
Yes, these are worrying days, but at the moment the thing that is under threat is the agreement, not the peace. Very few republicans want war. Very many are unhappy with the agreement because it represents the best deal unionists could possibly have won. It's not a great read, but it does, remarkably, recognise the grandiose piece of ballot-rigging that is partition. In fact, our government has renounced our right to decolonise if we so wish, which makes a mockery of our history. What on earth's the point of over-running places if we then have to stay there when we're fed up with them?
If unionists get the token gesture they demand, they will soon dismiss it as tokenism. If anything had been handed in at any stage it would have been said that it was no guarantee that the IRA are serious about peace. Now Peter Mandelson recognises that they are serious about peace but says they have to be serious about decommissioning. However did this ludicrous precondition come to dog the whole process? Oh yes, the British government has allowed it to - funny how we keep messing things up for Ireland.
© Copyright Guardian Media Group plc. 2000
IRA rejects allegations
In a statement released this afternoon the IRA has strongly rejected accusations that it has broken understandings or commitments on the issue of decommissioning. The organisation said it believes that the crisis currently facing the peace process can be averted and the issue of arms can be resolved. But the statement says this will not be on British or Unionist terms nor will it be advanced by British legislative threats.
The statement reads:
"The British Secretary of State has accused the IRA of betrayal over the issue of decommissioning. Similar allegations have been made by others. The British Secretary of State has now used this in threatening to collapse the political institutions. We totally reject these allegations."
"The IRA has never entered into any agreement, undertaking or understanding at any time with any one on any aspect of decommissioning. We have not broken our commitment or betrayed anyone.
"It was the IRA who took the first step to remove the gun from Irish politics by silencing our weapons. By so doing we created the space for the development of the peace process and for politics to work.
"Those who have once again made the political process conditional on the decommissioning of silent IRA arms are responsible for creating the current difficulties and keeping the political process in a state of perpetual crisis.
"The IRA believes that this crisis can be averted and the issue of arms can be resolved. This will not be on British or unionist terms nor will it be advanced by British legislative threats.
"We recognise the issue of arms needs to be dealt with in an acceptable way and this is a necessary objective of a genuine peace process - for that reason we are engaged with the IICD [decommissioning body]. We have supported and will continue to support efforts to secure the resolution of the arms issue.
"The peace process is under no threat from the IRA."
Hysteria over Decommissioning Is Misplaced
By Niall O'Dowd, Ireland on Sunday
If last week were a fish the Republican movement would throw it back in the water. It was a bad week for them and it could be worse next week if the institutions are suspended.
They were clearly caught flatfooted by the tidal wave of condemnation over the non-decommissioning of the weapons. Unfortunately for them, they can no longer argue this issue on its merits. It has taken on an emotional hysteria in the major media, which makes it very difficult anymore to discuss it rationally. I was surprised at the number of media people who contacted me to ask if I would not now, too join the chorus to demand they hand over weapons in order to "increase the pressure." Anyone with even a passing knowledge of Republicans would know that such a public stance has the exact opposite effect on them.
One major British network even cancelled an interview when I told them I had no intention of slamming the IRA for not immediately handing over weapons and that I saw the issue as far more complex than that. Yet so many tired cliches are trotted out on the news bulletins about " increased pressure on the IRA" that it is hard not to despair of any rational argument getting through on this issue any more.
A few months back we had a similar wave of hysterical stories that the IRA were about to decommission imminently, that by the end of January they would have handed in a large part of their arsenal.
Where are all those writers now? How many have had the decency to acknowledge their stories were figments of their or British intelligence’s imagination? Or are they so compromised that they will blithely continue to spread misinformation as part of their job?
Such stories played an invaluable part in creating the climate for the current crisis. The expectation that the IRA would decommission imminently was always a false one, yet, by sheer dint of the weight of misinformation, it became an accepted fact.
While the Irish government is struggling manfully to create some space around decommissioning it will be a tough struggle. Negotiating under the klieg lights of television and the close attention of the world’s media was never the Republican movement’s favourite way of doing business but if Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness can accomplish something they will do so as they have shown so often in the past when situations seemed hopeless.
Trying to force a voluntary act may be folly, even though we cannot fault the government for trying. In this context, there is immediate respect for new Foreign Minster Brian Cowen who has handled an almost impossible opening brief with shrewdness. By refusing to be stampeded by the British demand for immediate suspension he has gained valuable goodwill that may yet prove vital.
Lost in the hue and cry tide is the reality that the current hysterical cries for decommissioning are unwarranted. The obsessional demand for immediate decommissioning does not jibe with the situation on the ground in Northern Ireland. The last year has been the most peaceful in 30 years.
The IRA this week issued a statement that the peace process has "nothing to fear" from them. They have delivered in spectacular fashion on their promises made to keep their guns silent.
If the guns were not silent, if people were being killed and maimed then the handover of weapons should be the urgent priority. Because there is no violence whatever now, the insistence that decommissioning should be considered more important than all other aspects of the finely crafted Good Friday Agreement makes no sense.
It is as if a huge double or nothing bet has been made on decommissioning and all other aspects of the Good Friday deal. The belief is that the ceasefire, the new government and assembly the cross border bodies, the human rights initiatives, the reform of police and removal of the Irish government constitutional claim on Northern Ireland do not measure up to the clamor for guns handover.
The IRA ceasefire is the most important aspect of all, the bedrock on which the peace process was built. To jeopardize that for an issue that even proponents say is symbolic, in the sense that new weapons could be bought immediately after old ones are jettisoned, seems like madness.
Yet we sail on regardless. David Trimble is suddenly the man in the white hat because he grudgingly agreed for a brief period to go into government with Sinn Féin. Despite the fact that he imposed his own deadline and that he has welshed on at least three separate deals he negotiated with the concerned parties, he is suddenly the paragon of political statesmanship.
But we are still a little to close to Drumcree David to accept at face value this statesmanlike pose. As I wrote here recently, his real game is likely to coalesce with Seamus Mallon and the SDLP and exclude Sinn Féin altogether by May.
It is a foolish idyll to imagine that the North can go back to the old exclusionary ways and that the clock can be turned back on the progress that has been made in the past decade towards a lasting peace. Yes, the IRA could enormously help their cause by agreeing a method of dealing with this issue, but it is patently unfair to claim, as is currently being done, that their refusal to hand over weapons from a war they are no longer fighting is the only issue that matters in the peace process.
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