Fury at British suspension
Last week, this paper ran a front page exclusive story, revealing that the IRA had made an historic move that would advance the peace process. The mood of that report was upbeat - republicans had once again taken a major initiative to secure progress. The ball, as so many times before, was in the British court.
| |
"I hear also the patronising tone that the institutions have only been stood down for just one day and now it's okay. Well, it's not okay."
|
That statement, following on a positive statement from the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning, was enthusiastically welcomed by both governments but, ominously, the Ulster Unionists immediately found fault and even added a new precondition. David Trimble's game plan was still to achieve a suspension of the institutions and renegotiate the Good Friday Agreement.
At the weekend, British Secretary of State John Reid confounded the hopes of those who believed the British were at last ready to put the peace process first. Despite the tremendous opportunity on offer, the British government chose to revert to type, using powers outside the terms of the Agreement to suspend the political institutions at the behest of the Ulster Unionists.
No one should be surprised that the IRA this week, just days after making ``a very difficult decision'', withdrew its proposal in disgust, reminding us in its statement that ``peacekeeping is a collective effort''.
Speaking at the national hunger strike rally in Casement Park on Sunday, Gerry Adams warned that ``behind the soft words, really what is being opened up is a six-week period in which the British government and unionists are going to try to put pressure on republicans to move to resolve issues on British or unionist terms''.
He said that republicans would not be fooled by `Humpty Dumpty' politics or allow those resisting change to pocket initiatives and expect republicans to go along with it.
``I hear also the patronising tone that the institutions have only been stood down for just one day and now it's okay. Well, it's not okay.''
Let us all remember that the present crisis has been caused by the failure of the British government to implement the Agreement. They have failed to meet their own commitments or to take on unionist-imposed obstacles - such as the exclusion of Sinn Féin ministers from cross-border meetings. That failure has created the space from which unionists are attempting to subvert the Agreement.
This is no way to run a peace process.
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)