There can be no settlement without negotiations
Below we carry extracts of Gerry Adams' final statement
to the multi-party talks on Wednesday 18 February in
Dublin Castle
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Sinn Fein is committed to a settlement which will
accommodate the rights of nationalists and unionists.
Such an accommodation can only be achieved through
agreement. Agreement requires dialogue and negotiation
between all the parties on the basis of equality and
mutual respect.
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When we were to come here we were to deal with Strand 2
and it is unfortunate that we have not dealt with
Strand 2. Instead the entire proceedings have been
hi-jacked into an attempt to expell our party. I want
to deal with that. The question is have Sinn Fein
dishonoured the Mitchell Principles. We have not. In
the court affidavit I said that we upheld the Mitchell
Principles and reaffirmed the Mitchell Principles and
we do so again now.
Secondly, I make the point that Sinn Fein is committed
to our peace strategy and to negotiations. Thirdly, I
would formally request that both governments give us
their judgement face to face.
Fourthly, for those who have concerns and have raised
doubts about this constituting an exit strategy, it is
not. The Sinn Fein party is totally and absolutely
wedded to bringing about a peace settlement.
The current crisis began with the two killings of the
two men in Belfast. That is clear. The crisis goes back
much further but the current crisis started then. I am
mindful of the tragedy and I have expressed condolences
to each of the families but any attempt to develop that
as an exit strategy is spurious. I believe the IRA
statement that the cessation remains intact.
Let me say that there are no grounds for our expulsion
and let me say that in making this submission I want
formally to rebutt the Alliance indictment and the
British government indictment. Let me say that Sinn
Fein does not represent any armed group. Let me say
that our priority is to end all killings. The IRA have
not breached their cessation. Sinn Fein disavows all
killings. Sinn Fein has worked for an end to all
killings. Sinn Fein calls for an end to all killings.
Let me tell you that we will continue to do this
regardless of the difficulties placed in our way.
Going back to the Strand 2 points. David Trimble some
time ago refused to do a meeting which I had requested
in priviate and in a letter. Mr Trimble said it was a
publicity stunt. It was he who put it in the media. He
then set out grounds for not meeting us. I will resist
the temptation to get into recriminations. It does not
diminish me if I meet Dermot (Nesbit) and he does not
talk to me. It diminishes him. It does not diminish me
if Steven (King) turns his back when I meet him at the
coffee bar. It diminishes him. When Mr Trimble his
reasons for refusing to meet us I worded a reply to him
which I wanted to put in Strand 2 in an effort to deal
with the reasons he put forward. Although it is a
slight distraction from the rebuttal I am now making I
want to respond to Mr Trimble's points so that the UUP
can understand our position. So this is what I wanted
to say to Mr Trimble.
I do not know how we are going to get the negotiated
settlement we all want unless we negotiate. I am very
conscious of the difficulties the unionists face about
the future and on the whole question of change. Our
view is a broad one. I am very conscious of
difficulties that unionists face about participaing in
a process of negotiations. Sinn Fein's view of the
future is a broad one. We do not have all the answers
but we do have a vision for change. We want to see a
pluralist Ireland which recognises and celebrates the
diversity of the all the people of the island. We
recognise the fears of the unionist section of our
people. We want to make peace with you. We want to
share the island of Ireland with you on a democratic
and equal basis. We take no comfort from the fact that
you live in fear about the future. We want to play our
part in removing those fears through dialogue.
We want to make a difference for this and for future
generations. We need to create a situation of equality.
We have no wish or right to inflict upon unionists what
was inflicted upon us. I have acknowledged already that
republicans have inflicted hurt and that the unionist
community has suffered, as have we all.
I acknowledge that the consent and allegiance of
unionists is needed to secure a peace settlement but
consent is a two way street. Nationalist consent is
also necessary.
Sinn Fein is committed to a settlement which will
accommodate the rights of nationalists and unionists.
Such an accommodation can only be achieved through
agreement. Agreement requires dialogue and negotiation
between all the parties on the basis of equality and
mutual respect.
We need, through dialogue and negotiation, to remove
the causes of conflict, to agree the changes on which a
lasting peace can be built No one can have a veto in
this process and none of us should seek a veto.
We want to address the concerns of unionists in a
spirit of respect and goodwill. We cannot do so unless
the unionists engage with us.
It is in all our interests to secure peace.
Having for the record spoken to these issues in a way
in which there can be no equivocation or ambiguity I
want to make a number of points. There are double
standards and we know that - all of us know that. When
Sinn Fein pointed up all the different times when other
organisations were not indicted we did so not to get at
the PUP but to show double standards. For example,
there was a 30lb bomb, a powergel bomb, outside the
Monaghan office of Sinn Fein some time ago. Who planted
that? What is the assessment? There were the UVF
threats in the paper the other day. Why no indictment?
It is double standards when these things are allowed to
happen.
Let me try to explain why I think these double
standards are applied. Expediency rules. There have
been attempts to argue that Sinn Fein's attitude to the
UDP expulsion means we have to be expelled. Let me
explain Sinn Fein's attitude to the UDP expulsion. Let
me take you back to events before Christmas when there
was a row going on in the talks and the UUP left the
PUP outside the loop. That is why David Ervine said he
may not be able to come back into the talks. That is
when the entire situation went mad. When the UFF
prisoners withdrew their support for the loyalist
ceasefire and there was the nonsense of visits to the H
Blocks and so on. I spoke to the Secretary of State at
this time, before Christmas. I told her that the UFF
had taken a decision to end their ceasefire and was
working with the LVF and that the British government
needed to face up to this.
After Christmas when another Catholic was killed we
knew who did it. So did everyone else. Sinn Fein knew
we needed a political strategy to deal with this. The
political strategy involved identifying the
organisation responsible so that community, moral and
political pressure could be exerted on it to stop. That
is why we called for the forensic history of the
weapons but the RUC said only that they had an open
mind about these killings. I raised all of this with
the Secretary of State after Christmas. I told her it
was important that the UFF be named as the killers and
that the RUC were covering it up. Nothing happened. I
think the reason nothing happened was because the
British government hoped these killings would stop. But
they didnt. A Catholic a day was killed. 29 were shot.
The traditional response to such savagery would have
been that the IRA would have tried to shoot loyalist
leaders. Is this what was wanted? Yet the RUC boss took
3 weeks to identify the killers of 3 of the victims.
He has never said who killed the other six. But once he
named the UFF then the pressure mounted and the
killings were stopped which is what we were trying to
achieve all along.
We did not make an indictment against the UDP but we
knew the governments had to put them out of the talks.
If the RUC Chief Constable had not delayed would as
many Catholics have been killed? Would the UDP have had
to be expelled?
I privately challenged every UFF representative at
government buildings at Stormont. I spent the day
challenging all of the loyalists.
These are not the only times we have dealt with these
issues privately and publicly. For example, there is a
case of John Slane who was shot dead almost one year
ago. Initially the RUC attempted to suggest that
republicans were involved. But of course it was
loyalists who killed John Slane. I have written to the
last Secretary of State, to the last Security Minister
and the RUC about John Slane. I have spoken to Adam
Ingram, Paul Murphy and the Secretary of State and the
Irish Government about John Slane. There are still no
answers from the government Ministers or the RUC.
Earlier I tried to explain to John Alderdice about what
a peace strategy is and how we came to build it. I dont
want to repeat this now but let us compare the
situation in the decades before August 1994 and the few
years with all its set-backs since then. Before August
94 the policy was to marginalise, to exclude, to
demonise, to censor. All of the big parties on this
island colluded in the lie that what was happening,
what was wrong in the north was a criminal conspiracy.
To change that policy is a huge challenge for
governments, for constitutional partitionists as well
as constitutional nationalists, for church leaders,
editorial writers and all the rest. I just dont believe
politics is worth anything unless it empowers people
and all the wrong that has been done in the last 30
years there is no sense from it that the isolation and
marginalisation policies have achieved anything in the
way of ending the conflict.
But when Sinn Fein developed our peace strategy, when I
went to John Hume. When he had the courage to stay with
me. When the Irish government got involved, when Irish
America backed us, then that led to the IRA cessation.
What condemnations and denunciations, what
marginalisation could not achieve we achieved by
reaching out and dealing with people in a political way
and on their own terms. It was part of putting an
argument that there could be another way. And the IRA,
in fairness to them, facilitated this. But if there is
to be another way then it is up to the politicans to
produce it and that is the big challenge.
James Molyneaux said ``the IRA cessation was the most
destabilising thing to happen in Northern Ireland''. It
was a disgrace to say that. It meant that the UUP
preferred war to the challenges of peace making.
So if you look at the record, we have all been hurt,
ordinary people from all sides. But there are also
people in top places still caught up in the policies of
marginalisation who think that people in places like
Ballymurphy, Crossmaglen or the Bogside are unclean.
That they are lazy. That they are inferior. That they
are drunks. That they beat their wives or their
husbands. That they are lesser beings. It is the people
who think like this who want to go back to the old
ways. We should not let them have their way. A simple
lesson of the last 30 years is that the republicans are
not going away. The unionists are not going to go away.
The nationalists are not going to go away. That no
section of the people of this island is going to go
away. So we can shout and shoot at each other but we
still have to come back to sit round the table to
negotiate the future.
This (the expulsion of Sinn Fein) is a big decision for
the two governments. I have asked the British
government to withdraw their indictment. I have asked
the Irish government and I am formally asking the Irish
government not to support the British government.
d despite my scepticism maybe you (the British
government) will consider what is being said here
because you have not demonstrated in any way that Sinn
Fein has done anything wrong or that we have
dishonoured any committments that we have made.
We are the best chance you have of building a properly
inclusive peace settlement. Excluding us does not
assist the search for peace. The London government is a
participant, it is a party to these negotiations. The
British government and Sinn Fein have traditionally
been hostile, have been enemies. I want to bring that
to an end. We want to get away from all of this. That
the British government are judging republicans is
hugely unpopular and unfair.
There are elements outside of here who will think that
me saying all of these things is in some way bowing the
knee. Nothing could be further from the truth. We
remain firmly focussed on the need to bring about an
end to British rule. Others have a different view. But
everyone must know there has to be fundamental change.
That is the wish of the people who vote for us. If the
indictment goes against us who will be the voice for
all those people.
Other parties not here chose not to be here. That is
their decision. The DUP chose not to be here. Dr
Paisley would be welcome if he came but he has decided
otherwise. If we are excluded no one else can represent
our constituency except us.
So it is a big decision (to expel us) which will have
profound consequences in terms of the necessary trust
which is needed to build peace.
I do not know, if you decide to put us out, when we
will next meet in a session like this. I wish you well.
To all the parties around this table, Women's
Coalition, Labour, Alliance, SDLP, PUP, Unionists and
the Irish government.
I also wish the British Secretary of State well and her
Prime Minister well. Good luck also to the Chairmen.
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