British government must live up to commitments
BY SEAN BRADY
Since the Good Friday Agreement the attitudes and approach of the
British government on a number of issues have been of deep
concern to nationalists. Of late there were signs that the
British were acceding to unionist pressure to to renegotiate the
Agreement on unionist terms.
This has been felt most keenly on the decommissioning issue.
David Trimble in particular has been exerting considerable
pressure on Blair to elevate the issue of decommissioning into a
precondition whereby Sinn Fein would be excluded from taking its
place in a Six County Executive without a surrender of IRA
weapons. He has been receiving support for his position of late
from William Hague's Tory Party.
In recent weeks unionist spokespersons have been parroting the
rhetorical question ``Is the war over?''. It is fast becoming the
stock unionist reply to questions of whether they will sit down
with Sinn Féin in an Executive or as a variation on the theme of
decomissioning as a precondition.
To maintain the fiction that Sinn Féin is merely an armed
conspiracy as opposed to an open political party with a huge
mandate among the nationalist population, unionist spokespersons
continue to make no differentiation between the party and the
IRA. However, to give the Unionists the benefit of the doubt and
assume they really mean the IRA when they pose this question,
their position remains entirely disingenuous.
The question of whether the war is over cannot be directed solely
at one of the armed groups in the equation. Without an outright
military victory by one side or the other, no one group could
answer the question on its own. The reaction of each is
naturally, and logically, entirely dependent on the attitude of
others and the objective conditions.
Republicans have been working to achieve a situation where the
war is ended for good. Only persistence and a good faith
engagement by all the participants in the peace process can
ensure that there is a maintenance of cessations by all armed
groups. The achievement of a permanent peace settlement based on
justice and democracy, which is Sinn Féin's primary objective,
will mean in the clearest terms that the war is over.
Gerry Adams emerged from his meeting with Tony Blair on Tuesday
in confident mood. Regarding unionist attempts to impose
preconditions, using the decomissioning issue, Adams said that
Blair had made clear that there could not and would not be any
preconditions. On the same day David Trimble emerged from a
similar meeting with Blair to give a different interpretation.
Only time will tell if the British are as good as their word on
this issue.
Decommissioning is not the only area where British government
attitudes have been causing concern. Its behaviour on the issue
of the RUC has already caused a rift with the Irish government.
It appears that not a single name offered by the Irish side for
the Commission for the Reform of Policing was accepted by the
British who intended to present Dublin with a fait accomplit. Mo
Mowlam was to announce the entire membership of the body while
addressing the annual conference of the Police Federation for
Northern Ireland in Newcastle, County Down. In the event Mowlam
named three individuals at the Newcastle conference. Only after
great pressure was a seventh name - Gerald Lynch, an Irish
government nominee - added to the six-strong list on Wednesday.
Among the nominees is Peter Smith QC, a friend of David Trimble's
who stood as an Assembly candidate for the UUP in 1982. Hardly a
choice to inspire nationalist confidence.
The venue for Mowlam's intended announcement - the Police
Federation conference - underlines the continuing obsession of
the British government with unionist concerns to the detriment of
perceptions within the nationalist community. The exercise and
its context seemed designed specifically to reassure the RUC that
they have nothing to fear in that little will change for them.
Considering that the abolition of the force is a prerequisite for
progress from a nationalist point of view this was not a clever
move.
A glimpse of the absolute resistance to change within unionism
and specifically within the North's state security apparatus was
available at the Newcastle conference. There was an interruption
of Mo Mowlam's address and a walk-out by RUC man Gordon Thomas
over the issue of the release of political prisoners. Speaking to
reporters outside Thomas - who is stationed in nationalist West
Belfast - admitted that most RUC officers had voted against the
Belfast Agreement. Thomas was therefore clearly putting the RUC
in the Paisley political camp.
To argue that such a force can have any future policing role is
at this is at this stage flogging a dead horse. However, repeated
statements by British government figures that the RUC will not be
abolished is going down like a lead balloon within the
nationalist community. When such statements are juxtaposed with
the bahaviour of the RUC on the ground, for instance on
Portadown's Garvaghy Road last weekend, one gets a feeling of the
damage being done to perceptions of Tony Blair's intentions among
nationalists.
Republicans have welcomed Tony Blair's fresh approach to Ireland,
particularly when compared with the litany of disasters by his
predecessors. But the continuance of a one-sided approach since
Good Friday where the concerns of unionism are paramount is
threatening to undo the good things which have been achieved in
recent times. Mr Blair needs to appreciate the risks which Irish
republicans have taken and the distance we have travelled in an
effort to reach this point. Republicans have swallowed much,
including things which were fought against tooth and nail until
the last, including a Six County Assembly. Republicans accepted
these things in an effort to move the situation forward and to
maintain hope in the peace process. Yet at this stage unionists
continue their refusal to sit down face-to-face and engage in
dialogue with Sinn Féin.
Tony Blair needs to begin to understand the position of
nationalists and republicans. If his government attempts at this
stage to row back from its commitments to institute political
change, disaster will result. Clear indications that this will
not be allowed to occur are needed.
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