An Phoblacht/Republican News
Trimble slams on the brakes
October 21, 2003
The Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble has put his support
for a breakthrough deal in the peace process "on hold",
insisting his party had not had an adequate report from the
international body on decommissioning.
He said it was not clear that the IRA had carried out a
transparent and significant act of decommissioning, and
accused the IRA of "foolishly" preventing the release of
details of its latest act to put arms beyond use.
He said he was putting today's sequence of planned
announcements on hold and that the Ulster Unionists would hold
a special meeting.
Earlier today, Mr de Chastelain reported that a large quantity
of light, medium and heavy ordnance weaponry had been
decommissioned in twhat would be the largest such act in the
North of Ireland.
After meeting British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern at Hillsborough Castle, he said that
"the amounts involved are considerably larger than before".
Challenged about what he meant by light, medium and heavy
ordnance weaponry General de Chastelein, while remarking the
right of the IRA to confidentiality, added: ``This could
include commercial explosives and home-made explosives.
"It also might include detonator fuses and power units."
Machine guns and semi-automatics could also fall under this
category, he explained.
But Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble expressed
disappointment. In an apparent setback to the peace process,
Mr Trimble claimed the choreography around the IRA move had
not gone according to plan.
"There is a clear agreement between us and republicans that
there should be greater transparency.
"We had made it very clear to republicans, to the governments
and to General John de Chastelain that what we need in this
situation was a clear transparent report of major acts of
decommissioning of a nature which would have a significant
impact on public opinion and demonstrate we were in a
different context.
"Unfortunately we have not had that."
Mr Trimble said he would consult party colleagues about
issuing a fresh notice for a meeting of the party's 900-member
ruling council next Wednesday to study developments in the
peace process.
While praising the speech earlier today by Sinn Fein President
Gerry Adams, which he indicated had met his requirements, he
said he required a more public action of disarmament by the
IRA.
"There may possibly have been those substantial acts of
decommissioning but we have not had the transparency or an
adequate report," he said.
"Now under the agreed sequence the next step would have been a
number of statements from myself about our desire to see the
administration go forward and our willingness to enter into an
administration again.
"Everybody knows about my desire in this respect and everybody
knows how we have worked over the last number of weeks in
order to have meaningful elections to an assembly that formed
an administration.
"Because of the result of what the IICD (the Independent
International Commission on Decommissioning) has done we
probably now have less confidence in the process that we had
an hour ago.
"Because of that I regret that I am not in a position to make
those statements.
"We are now in effect putting the sequence on hold."