Irish Times, Sunday, September 29, 2002
http://www.ireland.com/
Envoy: Sinn Fein must be part of peace
by Jim Dee
BELFAST, Northern Ireland - Last weekend's Ulster Unionist Party threat to
collapse the north's power-sharing government on Jan. 18 unless the IRA
disarms and disbands by then has Britain and Ireland scurrying to find a
formula to avert what might be the biggest peace process crisis yet.
The IRA hasn't responded to UUP ultimatums in the past, and isn't likely to
do so now.
To make matters worse, after next May's elections, the assembly is likely to
include more hard-line UUP members since several moderates already have been
ousted in favor of hard-liners in the UUP's current candidate selection
process. That raises the specter of severe political gridlock next summer -
if the peace accord survives that long.
So, on the surface at least, things look grim.
President Bush's Northern Ireland envoy Richard Haass told reporters in
Washington on Thursday that he was ``concerned that this new deadline will
increase the sense of crisis, increase polarization, undermine trust and
make it all the more difficult to focus on what should be everyone's main
task, namely, making the institutions of the Good Friday agreement work.''
Haass is an interesting guy. He was in Ireland on Sept. 11 last year when
the terrorist attacks on America occurred. That night, according to some
reports, he angrily told Gerry Adams his party's lucrative fund-raising in
America would be stopped unless the IRA cut its alleged links with Colombian
rebels the United States considers a threat to its regional interests.
The trial of three alleged IRA members charged with giving explosives
training to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia begins Friday in
Bogota.
Haass' alleged threat to Sinn Fein - which, incidentally, Sinn Fein says
never happened - made him seem like a unionist dream come true: Here was a
man who would stick it to Irish republicans. But Haass hasn't done that.
In fact, he has been extremely balanced in his public remarks during several
visits here in the past year.
His most interesting comment last week was a blunt
``wake-up-and-smell-the-coffee'' message to anti-peace-pact unionists who
dream of forging a new peace pact without Sinn Fein.
He said, ``I do not see any real prospect of making the Northern Irish
political process work without including Sinn Fein.''
It was that sort of reality-check that formed the core of a lengthy press
briefing in Belfast on Wednesday by a senior Sinn Fein member.
Asked whether the IRA would disband by Jan. 18, he said, ``The strategy
we're involved in, which is about making politics work, has the ability to
bring an end to all the armed groups - including the IRA.''
Then, addressing the reporter who asked the question, the Sinn Fein man
highlighted the absurdity of the idea the IRA would ever cower before a
unionist demand, adding with slight smirk, ``Will (the) Ulster Unionist
Council (ultimatum) bring that about? What do you think?''
He said, whatever happens to the north's government in January, the British
and Irish governments must ensure other peace process components - such as
judicial and policing reforms, British army demilitarization and measures
safeguarding equal rights for Catholics and Protestants - keep moving
forward.
Appearing relaxed, the Sinn Fein man said his party had no desire to play
brinkmanship with unionists by issuing counterthreats.
``We're not talking about, `The train's leaving the station, youse got to
get on it,' or `This is the Last Chance Saloon' and all that crap,'' he
said. ``The way to straighten this out is . . . not to do anything that's
overtly offensive to anyone, but just to plod ahead on a course so that - in
a more settled circumstance - if we're on the Good Friday agreement ground,
unionists will come back to that.''
In other words, no matter what lies ahead, it's the long-term picture that
really counts when trying to bring peace to a land riven by often bloody
divisions for centuries.
``Sometimes we judge these things in spaces of a year, six months or a
summer,'' the Sinn Fein man stressed. ``And you really have to judge it
terms of 50 years, or 40 years or 10 years.''
SDLP leader Mark Durkan said the Ulster Unionist Party`s threat to quit the
executive if the IRA did not disband by the new year was part of a
``coalition of wrecking`` aimed at bringing down the political institutions.
The power-sharing administration in Belfast was plunged into crisis last
Saturday when David Trimble`s UUP threatened to quit the executive if the
IRA does not disband by January.
Hard-liners within the party have refused to continue sitting in the
Stormont cabinet alongside Sinn Fein amid continuing allegations that the
Provisionals remain active.
However, Mr Durkan said the agreed motion was fuelled by another motive.
``If we look at the Ulster Unionist Party`s resolution last week, they know
that the British Government and the Irish Government aren`t going to be able
to deliver the disbandment of the IRA or anything like it,`` he said.
``The real issue that they believe that they can get Government to deliver
is setting the clock back on policing, and I believe that is the real burden
of the Ulster Unionist resolution.``
However, anti-agreement Ulster Unionist Jeffrey Donaldson said the
resolution passed at last Saturday`s meeting was intended to ``put it up to
paramilitary groups``.
``Since the SDLP are not prepared to support an exclusion motion, then we`ve
got to go to the Prime Minister to see if there`s another way of having Sinn
Fein excluded from the executive in the absence of the kind of things that
we need to see happening in terms of their commitment to exclusively
peaceful means,`` he said.
``Now, the last resort is of course resignation, but we have made it clear
that we will pursue that path if we cannot get the progress that we need to
see.``
The last week has seen frantic political activity aimed at averting the
collapse of the power-sharing executive.
Northern Ireland Secretary Dr John Reid, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and Mr
Durkan have all travelled to Dublin for meetings, with all reaffirming the
belief that the agreement must be implemented in full.
However, Mr Durkan said that the UUP were using obsessive references to Sinn
Fein to mask their real intention, which is ``reversing the whole agreement
project``.
``It is clear that people are trying to set the clock back in terms of the
new beginning to policing,`` he said.
``What we should be doing is working together, using the democratic platform
that we now have to deal with the problems, to deal with the issues that are
there.
``Are there problems of ongoing paramilitary activity? Yes. Is the way to
solve them wrapping up the democratic tent? It is not.``
He also accused the Ulster Unionist party of pursuing a parallel agenda to
the anti-agreement paramilitaries.
``People need to be honest about that and people need to be very clear about
that and don`t be lamenting the consequences whenever that coalition of
wrecking prevails, if it`s allowed to prevail.``
However, Mr Donaldson said the SDLP had it within their power to maintain
the power-sharing executive.
``If you want the institutions to remain then you can honour what is in the
agreement which says that only those who are committed to exclusively
peaceful means can be in the government of Northern Ireland,`` he said.
``Now why don`t you vote for an exclusion motion to exclude those who are in
default of their obligations.``