London visit fails to resolve impasse
BY FERN LANE
The latest and probably most serious predicament in the tortured
history of the peace process remained unresolved on Monday as the
British and Irish governments continued to back David Trimble's
insistence on the surrender of IRA weapons before the setting up of
the new executive. Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams expressed deep
pessimism about the future of the process when he told reporters that
it was now in ``freefall'' and explained that if the Ulster Unionists,
supported by the two governments, continued to insist on IRA
decommissioning as a precondition for the setting up of institutions,
then the Good Friday Agreement would be ``dead''.
Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness, Mitchel McLaughlin and Seán Crowe
travelled to Downing Street to meet British Prime Minister Tony Blair
and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, who also held talks with the Ulster
Unionists and the SDLP, but after more than five hours of talks, no
progress was made on the issue of decommissioning.
Speaking afterwards to An Phoblacht, Mitchell McLaughlin said:
``We were in there for two hours and, as you can imagine, we had a
full and frank exchange of views. We went in there with the view that
the Good Friday Agreement is in freefall and we heard nothing at all
to contradict that view. We have to say we have no reason to believe
that the two governments have any intention of establishing the
political institutions.''
He explained that although the party had been pleased to learn that
the Hillsborough Declaration, issued on Good Friday this year, was no
longer on the table and that there seems to be no intention of
``parking'' the peace process over the summer, the fact that the
governments have not fully reverted to the Good Friday Agreement was
extremely disappointing.
``They were still supporting the position as marked out by David
Trimble. But we argued very forcefully that five of the six parties
to the Agreement are in favour of moving towards the setting up of
institutions. They [the two governments] have to give encouragement
to the fifty percent of unionism which is in favour of the Good
Friday Agreement in all its aspects.
``The Unionists have trapped the two governments into their present
positions; i.e. that the IRA must move on decommissioning before
political institutions can be established. This is unacceptable. it
is not in the Agreement and it is not what the people voted for.''
The delegation also raised the matter of continuing loyalist attacks
on nationalists, the forthcoming marching season and the murders of
Rosemary Nelson and Pat Finucane.
``Imagine if this had happened to Stephen Lawrence's family's lawyer
and the Metropolitan Police were implicated,'' commented Mitchel
McLaughlin. ``The reaction by the government would probably have been
very different.''
Tony Blair, he said, had responded with a number of vague assurances
on the investigation, but nothing concrete in respect of the setting
up of fully independent inquiries was forthcoming.
A further series of talks are planned for next week, although it is
not clear whether these will be held in London or Dublin, and will be
preceded by round table talks at Stormont this week.
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