Republican News · Thursday 6 March 2003

Work in progress

After 48 hours of intense negotiations at Hillsborough, Sinn Féin has succeeded in making substantial progress on all of the issues on which it has been pressing the British government, but the message from the republican leadership was that much remains to be thrashed out.

The current phase of negotiations commenced in December and picked up pace in January, taking on intense proportions two weeks ago. A 15-hour negotiation session took place in Belfast on 20 February, followed by two days of talks in London and one in Dublin. These negotiations culminated in the discussions in Hillsborough on Monday and Tuesday.

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams says the party is "pleased with the progress that has been made" this week, but he stressed that there is more negotiating to be done.

New legislation on policing and criminal justice, demilitarisation, equality, human rights and the Irish language were all dealt with in the talks, with developments made in most areas. Progress was also made on details of policing and criminal justice that do not require legislation.

Adams said that despite these developments, however, problems remain. "There are still gaps on important issues and more discussions are needed," he said."This is a work in progress."

Despite the impression given by the governments that negotiations were finished and it was now up to the parties, the Sinn Féin leader stressed that for republicans, negotiations are far from over and there will be continuing engagement with both governments and the unionists.

Gerry Adams was in contact with the governments on Wednesday, while Martin McGuinness met with the Ulster Unionists on Wednesday afternoon.

On Tuesday evening, the governments had intended to host a round table discussion at Hillsborough and leave after a 5.45pm press conference, but by 5pm, the governments and Sinn Féin were still gridlocked.

There are five main issues that remain to be satisfactorily resolved between the governments and Sinn Féin. The first is the newly introduced issue of sanctions. Sinn Féin has firmly rejected such an imposition as the party believes it is aimed at republicans.

Sinn Féin's talks with unionists revolve around the need for future stability and sustainability of the institutions. Sinn Féin is seeking clear and unambiguous commitments from the Ulster Unionists. As one republican source put it, "this process has been like Humpty Dumpty for the last five years, spending more time on the ground than on the wall. We cannot have a deal emerge that risks perpetuating that situation." And, of course, sanctions provide unionists with the means to do exactly that.

"There has been a decision by the governments to bring in sanctions which would clearly be aimed at Sinn Féin. We have told them that this is entirely unacceptable," said Adams.

The second major issue that remains to be resolved is equality, with Sinn Féin seeking timeframed measures for progress.

The third is policing, and here there are three main sticking points: representativeness, that is how quickly and how many republicans and nationalists will be able to join to make the force representative of the communities it serves; plastic bullets; and a range of matters relating to Special Branch.

Progress also needs to be made on demilitarisation, while the fifth major issue is Irish language funding. On that, Bairbre de Brún has managed to secure a commitment from the Dublin government for funding.

Also on Wednesday, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, Sinn Féin's group leader in the Dáil and spokesperson on the peace process, called for a debate on the latest developments and expressed his disappointment at the Dublin government's support of the unionist and British demand for sanctions.

For now, however, despite significant progress, the process remains stalled, with Assembly elections put back a month and still no restoration of the institutions.