Breakthrough as unionists edge closer to reality
BY MICHEAL MacDONNCHA
The latest breakthrough in the peace process came on Wednesday
evening when both governments and all the parties including Sinn
Fein voted at a plenary session at Stormont to move the talks
process into substantive negotiations.
A procedural motion worked out after intensive discussions
provided the mechanism to get the parties around the table for
the first time on the `three-stranded' agenda next Monday 29
September. The parties went into a plenary session at 9.30pm on
Wednesday. It had been postponed several times as agreement on
the wording of the motion was sought in a series of consultations
all that afternoon and evening.
While the motion provided the way forward to talks most of it
focused on decommissioning. The wrangling was about unionists
trying to rework the words of the two governments in their recent
statement when they said they would ``like to see'' some
decommissioning during talks. It was an attempt to retain
decommissioning as a blockage within negotiations. Sinn Fein is
opposed to that and therefore voted against that section of the
motion on decommissioning.
At the plenary on Wednesday night Sinn Fein reiterated its view
that the decommissioning obstacle should not be re-erected, that
the removal of all guns from Irish politics is a clear objective
of a lasting peace settlement. The issue of disarmament needs to
be resolved but without blocking negotiations.
The issue of consent was also referred to in the motion and Sinn
Fein said that they wanted to see a settlement that seeks and
wins the consent of all sections of the Irish people. Sinn Fein
said consent needs to be put in an all-Ireland context which
means bringing about a radical transformation of the situation by
ending partition and British jurisdiction. The nationalist
parties at the talks agree that an internal settlement is not a
solution.
A couple of hours before the breakthrough came, Ken Maginnis,
without a hint of irony, told Channel 4 News of his exasperation
at those whom he said were trying to hold up progress to
substantive negotiations and to place obstacles in the way of
real talks.
This was the day after he delivered a sham `indictment' of Sinn
Fein on behalf of the Ulster Unionist Party, knowing they would
not succeed in getting Sinn Fein thrown out. More to the point it
was after months and years of unionist delays and stalling as
they wrecked the first peace process and as they have been
attempting to reduce the present process to a snail's pace. It
came 16 months after the elections of May 1996 which were
supposed to lead to talks.
But this week the unionists ran out of options to stall the
commencement of negotiations. On Tuesday 23 September David
Trimble led the Ulster Unionist Party into the negotiating
chamber to share the table for the first time with Sinn Fein. It
was a welcome development, despite the farce which ensued.
Ken Maginnis delivered the six-page `indictment'. Its central
contention was that Sinn Fein is the IRA and both governments and
the other parties were wrong to allow ``unreconstructed murderers''
to the ``table of democracy''. There was of course no reference to
the electoral mandate which makes Sinn Fein the third largest
party in the Six Counties, bigger than Trimble's fellow unionists
in the DUP who are boycotting the talks. The UUP `indictment'
quoted sundry British government, Irish government and SDLP
criticisms of Sinn Fein. There was also an attempt to put in a
wedge between SDLP leader John Hume and his deputy Seamus Mallon
who, Maginnis said had ``a more realistic and consistent view of
IRA/Sinn Fein''. But the other participants weren't interested.
With remarkable unanimity they all said that it was now time to
look forward not back.
The content of the UUP `indictment' meant little. It was the
context which mattered. And the context was one of unreality.
The UUP delegation knew before they even composed their statement
that their motion for the removal of Sinn Fein from the talks
would be rejected. Knowing this they saw no point in hanging
around to hear a response from Sinn Fein or any of the other
participants so they walked out of the negotiating chamber once
the statement had been made. Would they be back? Trimble had a
new spin on this when he emerged on Tuesday afternoon. They would
return and they would negotiate - but with everybody except Sinn
Fein.
They returned on Wednesday but this time the drama had to be set
aside as hard bargaining began behind closed doors. If
substantive talks go ahead next Monday 29 September, as now seems
virtually certain, it will represent a coming to terms with
reality by unionists. Now that they have set aside play-acting,
at least for the time being, the unionists must face the task of
leading their section of the Irish people in negotiations. Of
course they still have the option of wrecking the search for
agreement from within the talks. If they persist in trying to
freeze out Sinn Fein completely this is the effect they would
have. But they would be failing their own people as well as
everyone else if they again destroyed this opportunity for a
lasting peace settlement. Both governments have a responsiblity
to ensure that such a scenario does not come about.
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)