Republican News · Thursday 18 February 1999

[An Phoblacht]

US Congressmen demand end to Unionist veto

After regular legislative business last Thursday in the US House of Representatives, Representative James Walsh held one hour of time in a special order to raise and discuss the issues of the stalled Good Friday Agreement. Also adding to the meeting were Representatives Richard Neal, Ben Gilman, James McGovern, Jack Quinn, Benjamin Cardin, and Donald Payne. The Congressmen raised the current impasse and stated that decommissioning is not a precondition, and should not be used as such. They all agreed that Trimble and the Unionists are at fault, and that Trimble should not be allowed to renege on the Agreement.

Congressman Neal stated that Trimble ``should not be allowed to park, rewrite or negotiate an Agreement that was approved by the vast majority of the people of Ireland.''

Chairman of the International Relations Committee, Ben Gilman, said that ``The Good Friday accord never made the issue of IRA decommissioning a precondition to Sinn Féin's entry into government and the new institutions it established. It provides only for best efforts and the hopeful completion of the arms decommissioning process by the year 2000.''

Congressman Walsh added ``We cannot allow one party, the UUP, to halt progress. He must realise that Sinn Féin does not control the IRA and that the people who have elected Sinn Féin representatives deserve a voice in the new Assembly.''

The one hour debate also addressed the need for a new policing service. Congressman Walsh said, ``The demand for change is not about getting more Catholics into the RUC; it is about completely overhauling how policing operates in Northern Ireland. It is about creating a new policing service with which the nationalist community can fully identify. We have seen too many examples of the so-called `securocrats' - those shadowy bureaucrats who operate behind the scenes and appear to pay little attention to their elected political leaders - slowing down reforms, to fit some alternative agenda. This must not be allowed to happen with policing.''

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