The Assembly must work to bring justice and equality
In Martin McGuinness's speech to the Assembly on its opening day,
he stressed its role in conflict resolution. Below, we carry his
speech.
I would like to support the comments made earlier by the First
Minister (Designate) and the Deputy First Minister (Designate) in
relation to the events of this summer, and the very great
tragedies which occured in Ballymoney and in Omagh, It was a very
traumatic summer for all of us.
Of all the Members of the House, the one affected most directly
was Mr Gibson [DUP]. We should show him special consideration
today. We all have very different political views, but everyone
in Ireland who has been involved in this process of conflict
resolution over the last four or five years was very hurt and
very struck by what happened in Omagh, and aware of the
implications that that undoubtedly had for all of us involved in
this process.
Mr Nesbitt's comments about the young person from his area who
implored him to press on with the implementation of the Agreement
was similar to the response of the people of Omagh. I have been
in Omagh on a number of occasions, and everyone I met - and they
were not all Nationalists or Republicans; there were Unionists
also - implored us to do our level best to ensure that the people
who were out to destroy the search for peace, justice and
equailty in this country would not succeed.
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The Agreement is much more than this Assembly: it is about how we
end division on this island; it is about the establishment of an
Executive Committee; it is about the establishment of a
North/South Ministerial Council; it is about the establishment of
the implementation bodies; and it is about how we deal with the
very important issues of justice and equality on this island
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I had my own first-hand experience of how hurt people are.
Republicans have acknowledged that we have inflicted hurt; but
hurt has also been inflicted on us. We are not just talking about
the decommissioning of guns, we are talking about thre
decommissioning of all the injustice, inequailty, discrimination
and domination of the past.
I was in a building in Omagh on the day of the last funerals. I
think it was Mrs Rushe who was being buried. As I left the
building, a number of people wanted to shake hands with me, I
offered my hand to one young woman who could not bring herself to
shake hands with me and she turned away. I accepted that and I
left the building. As I walked down the street, I heard a voice
behind me calling my name. I turned around and it was the young
woman. I went back to her and she said, ``I am sorry for turning
away. I am a Unionist and I am hurting'' and she started to cry. I
said that we were all hurting but that we were doing our best,
and she said, ``I know you are doing your best''.
Last week, the First Minister did not turn away. Considering his
background, it was very courageous for him to meet the leader of
Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams. In that meeting, they held out hope and
expectation for all of those people who have been watching this
process over the last four or five years. In fact, in the
aftermath of the terrible summer, and following the meeting
between Mr Trimble and Mr Adams, there is more support for the
peace process now than there has ever been. People are urging us
to do the right thing, to talk to one another, to engage in
dialogue and to implement the Agreement.
The Agreement is much more than this Assembly: it is about how we
end division on this island; it is about the establishment of an
Executive Committee; it is about the establishment of a
North/South Ministerial Council; it is about the establishment of
the implementation bodies; and it is about how we deal with the
very important issues of justice and equality on this island.
Sinn Fein represents a community which believes - and I know many
people here within the most extreme elements of Unionism find
this hard to accept - that since Ireland was partitioned they
have been persecuted, dominated and treated unfairly and in this
state. That is the reality that Members have to deal with and
that has given rise to conflict on this island over the last 70
years or so.
Members must work to bring about the implementation of the
Agreement and show, as we build that Agreement in all its
different stages, that we can get to grips with all that has been
wrong in this state since Ireland was partitioned. I accept
absolutely what Mr Hutchinson has said: that a great wrong was
also inflicted on the Protestant working class, many of whom were
also treated as second-class citizens.
There is a commonality of interest because there are still
working-class people in the Shankill Road, in Mid-Ulster, in the
Bogside and in West Belfast. The working-class are the strongest
supporters of the peace process and these people are telling the
Members to cut the nonsense out.
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The object of the exercise, as far as Sinn Fein is concerned, is
to decommission the injustices and inequalities of the past and
to decommission all the British and Irish guns
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We know what is in the Good Friday Agreement. it is very clear.
Sinn Fein discussed the issue of decommissioning with the British
and Irish governments in the run-in to the Agreement and they
took a very sensible view as to how the Assembly should deal with
this particular issue. The governments recognised, as de Klerk
recognised in South Africa, that the issue of decommissioning
should not be allowed to hold up the peace process. This is the
approach that is catered for in the Agreement document. It does
not say anywhere in the Agreement that Sinn Fein cannot enter the
Executive Committee unless there is decommissioning.
But the object of the exercise, as far as Sinn Fein is concerned,
is to decommission the injustices and inequalities of the past
and to decommission all the British and Irish guns.
[Martin McGuinness was interrupted by UUP Assembly member Esmond
Birnie, who asked: ``Would the Member not agree that South Africa
now has the highest statistical murder rate in the world? Does
that not demonstrate that leaving substantial stockpiles of
weaponry in a divided society is a recipe for disaster?]
Yes, I do accept that there are very great problems and
difficulties in South Africa. I have not said that both
situations are exactly the same. There is a lot of crime in South
Africa, there is a lot of guns and there is a lot of criminality
- there is no question or doubt about that. But de Klerk, who was
acknowledged along with Nelson Mandela as [being] one of the main
architects of the peace process in South Africa, said that if he
had insisted on decommissioning of weapons by the African
National Congress, they would not have had the peace process.
This process has now provided South Africa with the launching pad
for dealing with political issues, social issues, economic issues
and issues of criminality.
I think the Ulster Unionist Party is dealing with this issue in a
very sensible way. Some parties do not want to face the process
of conflict resolution; they do not want to face the reality that
the best way to take British and Irish guns out of Irish politics
is to remove all the causes of injustice which exist. This is
what peace processes are all about.
The question then becomes whether or not the Assembly people
believe Sinn Fein is genuine. The Democratic Unionist Party will
never accept Sinn Fein as being for real - I wish they would. I
want to be friends with them. And I think that some people within
Ulster Unionism who are dealing with this particular issue are
dealing with it in a very sensible way.
We must press on with the implementation of the Agreement. We
have been informed that there is going to be a North/South
Ministerial Council meeting before the end of this month, or
possibly at the beginning of October. The big question for us has
to be who is going to represent this Assembly on that Council. If
this Assembly is going to be represented by Mr David Trimble and
Mr Seamus Mallon, then it will not be properly represented. The
Agreement states, under the heading ``Executive Authority'', that
this is to be discharged on behalf of the Assembly by a First
Minister and up to ten Ministers with Departmental
responsibilities. That is what we have to implement; we have to
show people that we are going to deal with all of the different
aspects of life on this island that directly affect them.
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