IRISH
NEWS ROUND-UP
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Thursday-Saturday,
11-13 January, 2000
Feature:
Review of 2000
JANUARY
Peter
Mandelson's comments that military rather than political agendas would be
shaping any British approach to demilitarisation provoked a strong reaction from
Sinn Fein. Mandelson, speaking on UTV's Spotlight programme, proclaimed that any
decisions on demilitarisation would be based on advice from the RUC and British
Army. To be fair, he's been true to his word.
As more recent
developments, or the lack thereof, have shown, the militarist agenda of the
British Government has hardened if anything - partly due to Mandelson's own
disastrous approach to the peace process.
Not to break the
mould, Mandelson followed his previous comments by delivering of proposals on
policing that seemed almost oblivious to the recommendations of the Patten
Commission Report. The Relatives for Justice Campaign responded swiftly to the
proposals:
"We
are totally appalled at the announcement by Peter Mandelson that the current RUC
boss, Ronnie Flanagan, is to have responsibility for overseeing the
implementation of human rights within the new policing structures," they
said. "Flanagan in charge of human rights is a real contradiction in terms
and certainly does not augur well for the future."
FEBUARY
Not
content with Mandelson's cop-out on the policing issue (pardon the pun), the UUP
began February with concerted efforts to bring down the Six-County institutions,
using the pretext that the IRA had not surrendered its weapons. Armed with a
pre-dated letter of resignation and accompanied by a compliant media barrage,
David Trimble said that he would bring down the institutions.
In
a statement, Oglaigh na hEireann said it posed "no threat to the peace
process".
David
Trimble, however, proved that he and the UUP clearly were a threat to the peace
process - supported by a aquiescent British Government.
Peter
Mandelson's unilateral suspension of the political institutions came immediately
after the production of a second De Chastelain Report. Despite the positive
nature of the report, Mandelson decided to proceed with the suspension - proving
again that he was dancing to the beat of a UUP drum, to the detriment of the
Good Friday Agreement.
MARCH
March
was possibly the month that most typified the political scenario that dogged the
year 2000. Non-responses and publicity initiatives were the order of the day, as
British Governmen officials strained to create an illusion of movement while the
process stagnated in crisis.
Responding to media speculation that there were plans to hold a crisis summit in Washington on St Patrick's Day, Gerry Adams said that it would be pointless if all that happened was a "regurgitating of all the circular arguments".
He continued: "I don't have any faith in round tables, square tables, rectangular tables, coffee tables or any other variation of meetings, until the British Government realises it caved in to unionist demands and tore down the institutions and tore up the Agreement.
The
failure of the signposted summit for St Patrick's Day to materialise was a clear
indication that the British Government had no gameplan to repair the damage it
had caused to the peace process, except that is, to support the increasingly
strident demands of unionism without exception.
David
Trimble barely shaded Martin Smyth in the UUP leadership challenge and created
new room for political progress - albeit limited by a new veto. Now the Ulster
Unionist Council had decided to block any resumption of the political
institutions if there was to be a change in the RUC's title.
Mandelson,
faithfully in toe like a submissive lap dog, said that republicans would have to
provide unionists with the "watertight assurance that the war is over, that
violence will never again play a part in Northern Ireland politics".
APRIL
Compounding
British subversion of the Patten Report was the awarding of the George Cross to
the RUC, by British monarch Elizabeth Windsor.
While
the bulk of the media here chose to selectively ignore the murky past
involvement of the RUC in torture, harassment and murder, they were quite
content to waffle on about the 'courage of the RUC'.
At
the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis in Dublin, Caoimhghin O Caolain, the party's Cavan/Monagahan
TD, addressed the notion of ta 26-County coalition government involving Sinn
Fein. "We would require decommissioning," he said,
"decommissioning of the partitionist mindset which still persists among
them (the right wing parties). Decommissioning of the conservative politics
which have helped to create our two-tier unequal society. Decommissioning of the
consensus between Fianna Fail and Fine Gael to abandon Irish neutrality."
MAY
In
an unprecedented and historic move, the IRA leadership announced on 6 May that
it would initiate a process of confidence building measures around the arms
issue, to create badly needed space in the political process.
Restating
its commitment to a just and lasting peace in Ireland, Oglaigh na hEireann said
that its attempt to end the political stalemate came "despite the abuse of
the peace process by those who persist with the aim of defeating the IRA and
Irish republicanism".
Not
to reciprocate the Army's gesture of goodwill, Peter Mandelson unveiled a Police
Bill in the House of Commons which could aptly be described as an insult. Ahead
of yet another Ulster Unionist Council meeting, Mandelson had chosen not to
break with British political tradition and again accede to the demands of
unionists.
JUNE
Following
a tense UUC meeting on the last weekend in May, David Trimble secured 53% of the
delegates' vote and the Good Friday Agreement institutions were restored. Sinn
Fein welcomed the resumption, but warned that the attitude towards the process
conveyed by members of the UUP would cause further difficulties.
So
too would the attitude conveyed by the British Government. On Tuesday 6 June, a
second reading of the Police Bill in the British House of Commons left little
doubt of Mandelson's determination to subvert the Patten proposals.
Sinn
Fein produced a detailed report, citing at least 75 changes that would be
required to bring the bill in line with Patten's 175 recommendations.
Masked
and brandishing weaponry, the UDA renewed its armed threat against norther
nationalists, accusing them of "ethnic cleansing" in Belfast. The
Six-County Housing Executive immediately refuted this allegation, saying that it
was actually nationalists who were being intimidated out of their homes.
The
loyalist feud was beginning to rear its ugly head.
JULY
Orangemen at Drumcree were banned from marching down the nationalist Garvaghy Road on Sunday 2 July, sparking vicious rioting in loyalist areas.
Following
inflammatory remarks from Portadown Orangeman Harold Gracey, loyalists both at
Drumcree and in Belfast attacked nationalist areas and caused mayhem in their
own.
Gracey had commented that if the "Protestant people ...don't get off their bellies before it's too late this country (sic) will be gone".
The Orange disorder continued for the Twelfth 'celebrations', at which the UDA took their opportunity to engage in gratuitous shows of strength. Twenty-two-year-old Andy Cairns was beaten and kicked by a group of 12 men before being shot by assailants believed to be connected to the UDA. Cairns was said to have UVF links and this heightened speculation that an outbreak of loyalist feuding was imminent.
At
the end of the month, the vast bulk of Oglaigh na hEireann POWs were released.
Despite having clearly qualified for release under the terms of the Good Friday
Agreement, Jerry Sheehy, Pearse McCauley, Mick O'Neill, Kevin Walsh and John
Quinn remained, and still remain, behind bars in the 26 Counties. Bertie Ahern,
in this situation at least, has clearly failed to honour his commitments under
the Agreement.
AUGUST
As
loyalist violence intensified in August, nationalists were the first victims of
attacks, before the UDA and UVF ended up turning on each other.
Shots
were fired at nationalist homes in north and west Belfast as loyalist rivals
flexed their sectarian muscles.
The
erection of rival murals by the UDA and UVF, in what Gerry Kelly branded the
'Battle of the Murals', was a sign that loyalists were gearing up for further
internecine violence.
And
so they were. Belfast's Shankill Road erupted as loylist rivalry spiralled into
bitter feuding. Tit-for-tat killings between the UDA and UVF were accompanied by
the eviction of scores of UVF and PUP supporters.
Leading
loyalist Johnny Adair, was arrested by British forces and returned to jail, as
hundreds of British troops saturated Belfast.
As
the feuding continued, Charlene Daly, the 11-year-old daughter of a former UDA
prisoner, was shot through the window of her Coleraine home. Luckily, she
survived the attack.
SEPTEMBER
Peter
Mandelson's claims that his proposed Police Bill represented a faithful
implementation of the Patten Report suffered a further blow when the British
Government's own appointed Police Authority in the Six Counties publicly slammed
the proposed legislation.
In
their last annual report, the Authority said that Mandelson's legislation
allowed for the "appearance of oversight without any real power to back it
up".
"The
overall result of the legislation as it stands," Authority Chairperson Pat
Armstrong said, "is a less powerful policing board and a more powerful
secretary of state".
OCTOBER
In
the run-up to yet another "poor David, save him from the nasty No
camp" Ulster Unionist Council meeting, Peter Mandelson again restated his
intention to stick to the unionist line on the RUC.
As
the third reading of the Police Bill passed through the House of Commons,
Mandelson also decided to propose
legislation to ensure the flying of Union Jack flags from all ministerial
offices at Stormont.
Despite
these sops to unionism, the IRA, incredibly, decided to announce that a second
inspection of its arms dumps by international inspectors would take place - in
order to create further space for movement in the political process.
But,
sadly, to no avail. 54 per cent of the Ulster Unionist Council voted, at a
meeting in Belfast's Waterfront Hall, for David Trimble's motion to exclude Sinn
Fein ministers from North-South Ministerial Council meetings, pending IRA
decommissioning. Again, the British Government encouraged Trimble in his efforts
to minimise change and make impossible demands.
Sinn
Fein Chairperson Mitchel McLaughlin said that the situation amounted to
"the most serious crisis yet in the peace process". Trimble, he said,
had set the process on a "course for collapse".
NOVEMBER
While
the Executive's Programme for Government was launched, in somewhat surreal
circumstances considering David Trimble's actions, Gerry Adams said that the
process had now entered a "rolling crisis".
"I
don't think that anyone can have any confidence that the new beginning that was
required under the Good Friday Agreement is being pursued by the British
Government," he said.
The
'new beginning' Adams spoke of was not being pursued by David Trimble either. As
it soon emerged, the UUP leader had swayed party delegates to his side with a
letter in which he set a course for the collapse of the Good Friday Agreement.
Trimble
said that his main aims were firstly, to create a crisis, secondly, to suspend
the political institutions and finally, to project the blame for all this onto
republicans.
As
Mandelson's flawed Police Bill made its final journey through the British House
of Commons on Tuesday 21 November, Mitchel McLaughlin said of the beleagured
state of the peace process that "we may well be at the end of this
particular journey".
"The British Government are quite deliberately, quite cynically, in a planned fashion, reneging on the public promise which they made in May this year, and that essential bridge of trust between the IRA and the British Government has been broken."
DECEMBER
While
the visit of US President Bill Clinton to Ireland did bring renewed attention to
the peace process, there was far more media-generated hype than actual political
substance.
The
illusion of movement that the British Government wanted to create was just that
- an illusion - according to Gerry Adams.
"There is a perception, created by the British Government itself, that it is working behind the scenes to achieve movement before President Clinton's visit," he said. "Is the British Government really burning the midnight oil to get movement? Are they making an effort? What is happening? Nothing.”
As
Sinn Fein engaged in intense discussions with both the British and Dublin
governments, the year ended with little or no sign that progress was on the
cards. On 21 December, Sinn Fein's Gerry Kelly reported that intensive
discussions bertween Sinn Fein and the two governments had ended without
success. "The militarists continue to dictate the British government's
political agenda," he said.
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