Irish Republican News and Information, 26. January 2003, http://irlnet.com/rmlist/ 

TRIMBLE CLAIMS VICTORY OVER IRA, MAY BOYCOTT TALKS

Following indications that the Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble will boycott intensive multi-party talks in Belfast this week aimed at rescuing the Good Friday Agreement, the Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams today called for "a bit of political bonding" with the Ulster Unionists.

He asked of the unionists: "Are they going to come into talks with us to try and sort it out? Are they going to boycott talks? Are they going to come in sometimes?

"Let all of us collectively come together, let there be a bit of political bonding."

Yesterday the Ulster Unionist leader suggested the possible boycott as a retaliation for the involvement of the Irish government in the talks on the peace process.

"I am probably not going to the talks on Thursday," he admitted. "I am getting increasingly fed up with this behaviour. There is no value in them: the only important talks are in Downing Street."

While Trimble claimed the round-table talks were irrelevant, fellow unionist MPs Jeffrey Donaldson and David Burnside were warning that the talks were a "high-wire act" and "very high risk".

Burnside said he was opposed to any discussions that did not involve placing sanctions on Sinn Fein and did not believe it would be possible to enter government with the party for the foreseeable future.

Trimble is angry about the involvement of Brian Cowen, the Dublin minister for foreign affairs in talks which he considers only involve "internal" matters for the Six Counties.

It also emerged that Mr Trimble defiantly told an Ulster Unionist branch in Carrickfergus, County Antrim, on Friday night that republicans would have to wait very long to see their dream of an end to British rule fulfilled.

"The republican juggernaut has been halted - unionists are not going to be rolled into a united Ireland," the Upper Bann MP declared. He declared that SInn Fein had been "hollowed out".

"After their so-called `long war', Irish republicans face a very long wait indeed for an end to British rule.'

Mr Trimble also told the unionist meeting they should have every reason to believe they were "on the front foot" in the peace process and could look to the future confidently.

In an interview on Irish radio today, Mr Adams said his party would continue to engage with unionism despite any potential boycott.

"We remain resolute in sorting this out, and think it will eventually be sorted out.

"We are poised, our negotiating team is in place."

BRITISH PLAN AWAITED

Mr Adams said that regardless of the "other priorities" of the British Government, it "really does need to pull its socks up.

"We need to see a plan for completion of this phase of the process."

Mr Adams pointed out that the IRA had moved "far beyond the Good Friday Agreement" in trying to enhance the peace process.

And he added: "Let no one, begrudgers, nay-sayers, anti-republican elements, those who are against change, try to persuade anyone that there has not been huge progress made in terms of the IRA, or that the IRA has not taken dangerous and difficult steps to enhance this process.

"Others, particularly in 10 Downing Street and within the unionist leadership, need to reflect that in what they do."

He told a meeting of the party leadership on Saturday that republicans must be prepared to continue their essential contribution to the Peace Process.

In a statement, he said that Sinn Fein's approach to the upcoming negotiations would be based on certain principles, including the fact that the Good Friday Agreement is "the only show in town".

Adams said the IRA was not a threat to the peace process -- the British government and the unionists knew this, he said -- and the IRA has given "a fair wind" to the Agreement.

Meanwhile, unionists had not been selling the Agreement: "Instead they have been seeking to dilute and renegotiate", while the British and Irish governments had "pandered to them" and had encouraged them in this approach.

He claimed that anti-Agreement unionist violence has been "tolerated and tacitly encouraged" by British securocrats, while allegations about IRA activities had created political difficulties. "But the IRA is not the cause of the crisis", he added.

He also stated that the UUP had decided to collapse the political institutions by January 18th in any event; and the raid on Sinn Fein's Stormont Offices, the arrests of republicans and other action by the British government agencies "clouded this fundamental reality and contrived a basis for the British government to suspend the political institutions".

Demands for the surrender of the IRA and or the disbandment of the IRA were not, in Sinn Fein's view, realistic. But he said Sinn Fein was committed to bringing a permanent end to political conflict on this island.

"We have a strategy for that and a strategy to see an end to all armed groups. Others, especially the British government and the unionists, also have significant roles in that strategy. So too the Irish government.

DEMOCRATIC IMPERATIVE

"The democratic imperative must be given precedence both as a matter of principle and as a counter to a contrived strategy of instability," he added.

This required that the elections scheduled for 1 May 2003 must go ahead, and the British government "end its veto" over the institutions.

"Their legislation to suspend the institutions which was enacted on unionist demands must be repealed," he added.

Also, the "stunted" process to create an acceptable policing service "must be got back on track and rapidly concluded". He added that the North's justice system - "shaped by unionist domination and Britain's military imperatives in Ireland" - must be transformed, equality must be realised and delivered and the demilitarisation of society brought forward rapidly.

"These are all requirements of the Good Friday Agreement to which the British government and the Ulster Unionist Party are signatories. There is nothing new about them save the British Prime Minister's acceptance that his government has not been fulfilling its obligations across the board on these issues.

"When I say that the IRA is not the cause of the crisis, this is not to suggest that allegations of IRA activities do not cause political difficulties in the unionist constituency. They do of course. And regardless of whether they are real or unfounded Irish republicans know that, because ongoing activities by British intelligence, the British Army, the police force and unionist paramilitaries cause political difficulties in our community. Particularly against a backdrop of unionist contrived perpetual political crisis which is at the centre of attempts to wreck or renegotiate the Agreement.

"But these are problems to be addressed and resolved, not reasons for wrecking the Agreement.

"The British Prime Minister has put his finger on the route to doing this. His frank admission that his government has not been implementing the Agreement is a tacit acceptance of the analysis Sinn Fein has been making all along. The Agreement, the political contract and primary device for creating the conditions in which all armed groups can be removed from the political arena, has not and is not being implemented.

"Instead the failed politics of dealing with the symptoms of conflict rather than its causes looms large over the situation. It is a well worn route into cul-de-sac politics and usually involves making pre-conditions out of objectives of the peace process."

Mr Adams concluded by telling the Sinn Fein Executive: "Recognising all of the difficulties, and conscious of real concerns, as opposed to excuses for contrived scenarios and situations, Sinn Fein will explore any possibilities Mr Blair's current negotiation open up.

"While we welcome the British Prime Minister's acknowledgement that the British government is not and has not been implementing the Agreement, we are also mindful of their claims to the contrary over the past four and a half years and the politically debilitating effect of this. Nonetheless, we will explore with Mr Blair and the Irish government, their commitment to rectify this.

"The effect of this bad faith by the British government should not be underestimated. Their credibility in the republican constituency is low."