A challenge for everyone
The renewed IRA cessation has challenged everyone to play their
part in the reconstruction of the peace process. For republicans
the challenge is to enter a new phase of struggle with the same
resourcefulness and determination that they have shown in all
previous phases. The courage of the IRA in taking this step has
given them an example to follow.
For the Dublin government the challenge is to represent Irish
national interests. For the SDLP it is to do likewise. The
British government has to face up to the historical and present
reality of its colonial role in Ireland. It cannot credibly
pretend to be a neutral arbiter while simultaneously upholding
the Union and backing the unionist veto.
Republicans are conscious of the challenge that unionists face
and the difficulties the new situation brings for them. This
section of our people must be central to any new agreement. In a
very revealing phrase on 20 July UUP MP Martin Smyth said that in
politics sometimes one cannot even trust oneself. But it is
precisely themselves that uniomists need to trust so that they
can negotiate. Dependence on Britain offers them no real future.
Sooner or later they will come to see this reality. In the
meantime they cannot be allowed to bring down the peace process.
RUC and RIR must be disbanded
The IRA has sent a clear message of its intentions to enhance the
search for a democratic peace settlement through real and
inclusive negotiations.
This British Labour government must therefore show a willingness
to build on the groundwork already laid.
Republican demands in 1997, as they did in 1994, call for a
demilitarisation of the Six Counties, including the disbanding of
the RUC and the RIR. After the 1994 cessation British government
began a process in which they tried to normalise these armed
forces and recreate the image of the RUC as a normal police
force. This was, in some instances, aided and abetted by school
boards and governors who allowed the RUC into nationalist schools
and youth clubs to give talks on various subjects to children.
Nationalists should be alert to the possibility that the RUC, the
NIO and those in authority in schools and youth clubs may attempt
the same thing again, especially in light of RUC brutality on the
Garvaghy Road this year and last and the Lower Ormeau Road as
well.
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