Last ditch effort needed to save Agreement
BY SEAN BRADY
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The reported improvement in atmospherics needs now and urgently to be translated into real movement in the talks. The core issues remain and there is no point is continung next week if the talks are to go round and round in circles
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Talks under the Mitchell Review of the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement have been adjourned until Friday, 22 October, with no sign of any political progress.
Sinn Féin and the UUP engaged in talks for most of the day in London on Monday and on Tuesday of this week, with the SDLP and other parties rejoining the talks on Tuesday and Wednesday.
George Mitchell held a meeting with the new British direct ruler in the North, Peter Mandelson, on Thursday evening to brief him on the first two days of talks at the new London venue. The U.S. Senator has not yet said when or at what point he will declare his review to be finished, one way or the other.
It was reported, from Sinn Féin at least, that the atmospherics had improved considerably from those at Stormont but it was clear by the middle of this week that there was no sign of any real breakthrough.
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If the review does fail, the reality that the Agreement was endorsed by an overwhelming majority of the Irish people will need to be faced up to, and the Irish and British governments will be forced to come up with a way of carrying through that democratic will
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On Monday, 18 October, Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams released a lengthy and detailed statement setting out the party's position. He said: ``I know that there are some within unionism who have concluded that it is better to dig in and refuse to move rather than negotiate. Others from within loyalism and the UUP are making the effort to engage through dialogue. They do so in common with all other participants, within their own lights, and their efforts are to be commended. However, thus far such efforts have failed to secure the implementation of the Agreement.
``Most republicans and many nationalists have lost confidence or are losing confidence in the current process. This loss of confidence is reflected also within unionism This is not to say that these people want the Agreement to fail. On the contrary, support for the Agreement remains solid, but there is an increasing detachment and disappointment with the lack of progress.
``I myself believe that the gap between the UUP's demand for decommissioning and what is achievable on this issue appears to be too wide to be bridged in the context of the non-implementation of the Agreement. Their demand is also outside the terms of the Agreement, but Sinn Féin would not be dogmatic on this point if there was some way of meeting the UUP demand. The reality is that the UUP position is not doable and their project is not helped by their rejection over the last year-and-a-half of a series of efforts by us to resolve this matter on their terms.
``This reality has to be faced up to. I say this more in sadness than in anger and Sinn Féin will continue to do our best in the Mitchell review because it is my conviction that it will be a huge tragedy if this review fails over this issue. This is another reality that also has to be faced up to.''
Adams went on to say that Sinn Féin is committed to a settlement that will accommodate the rights and aspirations of nationalists, republicans and unionists. He said Sinn Féin recognises unionist fears and wishes to share the the island of Ireland with unionists on a democratic and equal basis. No-one would take succour, he said, from the failure of the Mitchell review except those elements within unionism and loyalism and on the outer margins of extreme nationalism who have set their faces against change. These people needed to be liberated from their fears and prejudices and this is the challenge facing all sides, especially unionism.
The review itself is now approaching a conclusion, and the greatest efforts so far to achieve agreement will be needed when the talks resume. The reported improvement in atmospherics needs now and urgently to be translated into real movement in the talks. The core issues remain and there is no point in continung next week if the talks are to go round and round in circles.
All of the participants need to be aware of the urgency of the current situation and it is to be hoped that no-one will treat the talks as a game or a PR exercise. What is required is real and genuine negotaition and a will to see a way through the current impasse.
The necessity to implement the Good Friday Agreement will still be there when the Review concludes, with or without a commitment from the UUP to co-operate in that process. If the review does fail, the reality that the Agreement was endorsed by an overwhelming majority of the Irish people will need to be faced up to, and the Irish and British governments will be forced to come up with a way of carrying through that democratic will. But failure would be a real tragedy nonetheless and it is not a prospect which republicans want even to consider. It seems clear that the Sinn Féin negotiators remain confident and determined that a way forward can be found. Let's hope they're right.
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