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Journalism of Courage
BELFAST, Oct 31: Northern Ireland looked certain to miss the first deadline on Saturday of its historic peace accord after Unionist and Republican leaders failed to break a deadlock over paramilitary weapons.
The province8217;s First Minister, David Trimble, and Gerry Adams, leader of the IRA8217;s republican wing Sinn Fein, emerged from an hour of talks on Friday to blame each other for the impasse.
At stake was the formation of a shadow power-sharing executive in the province and a cross-border body including Irish government and Belfast ministers.
Again, it was the age-old problem of decommissioning weapons which stalled progress toward implementing the April 10 accord.
Sinn Fein claims a clear electoral mandate to sit on the executive as of right, but Trimble and his Ulster Unionist party insist it should not until paramilitaries, particularly the Irish Republican Army, begin disarming.The impasse means the executive, which will be given real powers by London in February, cannot be formed for the timebeing, and as a result neither can the North-South body.
Both Trimble and Adams are right, to a certain extent.
Trimble is backed by the spirit of the accord, for which parties affirmed their 8220;absolute commitment to exclusively democratic and peaceful means.8221;Sinn Fein8217;s membership of the executive would therefore be hard to square with the IRA holding onto its weapons.
However Adams is right too, because the letter of the accord does not set any specific conditions for a party joining the executive. Technically, the agreement allows for two years to get rid of paramilitary weapons.
After the talks in Belfast, Adams urged British Prime Minister Tony Blair to persuade Trimble to move quickly to establish the executive.
8220;I feel I have a responsibility to spell out very clearly to the British Prime MInister that he signed up to this agreement as well and that the Ulster Unionist Party are preventing the implementation of parts of the agreement he signed up to,8221; said Adams.
Trimble meanwhileaccused the Sinn Fein leader of using the meeting as a publicity stunt,8217; saying that there was no sign he was prepared 8220;to treat seriously his obligations under the agreement.8221;
He went on: 8220;It is his failure that is causing us a problem, there are no other problems.8221;
Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said later he would go on Monday to Belfast with his foreign minister David Andrews to take part in intensive round-table talks to try to break the deadlock.
The impasse over disarmament has paralysed implementation of the fragile institutional structure which envisages unprecedented power-sharing by the province8217;s Roman Catholic and Protestant communities.
London and Dublin have conceded the new institutions will not be in place by the deadline, but intensive efforts are under way to ensure they will be up and running by the much more significant deadline of February, when they get full powers.
Downing Street said work to implement the accord would continue. 8220;We readily acknowledge there aredifficulties,8221; a spokesman said. 8220;There have been difficulties in the past and they have been overcome.8221; Prime Minister Tony Blair has expressed his disappointment over the current impasse surrounding peace accord.
