ELECTION CANCELLATION TO GO AHEAD
The British government is set to propose legislation to cancel elections
to the Belfast Assembly on Monday in a House of Commons vote in London.
The move is set to face opposition from the Conservative Party, which
has long supported the British government line on the North of Ireland.
While Mr Blair announced his decision at a Downing Street press conference,
the Conservative Party´s spokesperson on the North, Quentin Davies
told British Secretary of State Paul Murphy: "The government have
shown that they do not take their own constitutional rules seriously and
that devolution does not benefit from any objective constitutional framework."
This week he added: "If electoral commitments are just to be treated
as the plaything of the government . . . one of the great achievements
of the Belfast Agreement will be set at naught."
Almost 200 election candidates have put their names forward to contest
the assembly poll after British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced its
postponement.
The Ulster Unionist Party had the highest number of candidates with 44,
while the Democratic Unionist Party put forward 40 nominees.
Describing the current situation as "very grave", Mr Davies
said the government's "extremely foolish" decision could mean
the postponement of elections for a long time and the end of the agreement,
or elections in the autumn probably more likely to produce the result
feared by the British government in the first place gains for Sinn
Fein and the hardline unionist DUP party.
Meanwhile, as recriminations over the recent collapse in peace efforts
continued, the Irish Prime Minister, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has claimed
that a delay by the IRA to include commitments by Gerry Adams in its formal
position during the most recent phase of the North talks had halted progress
towards holding the elections this month.
The suggestion has been denied by republicans, who pointed out that any
uncertainty had been resolved by the release of two IRA statements this
week setting out its position in clear terms.
The statement by Ahern implicitly accepts that there is no grounds, even
on the terms claimed by the British government, to justify the failure
to hold elections by next month.
Mr Ahern has since accepted that the IRA has made another massive seismic
shift in support of the peace process.
This week's additional IRA statement, in which it said Mr Adams had "accurately
reflected" its position, had helped greatly, he said. "There
was obviously a seismic shift in six days. It is welcome," he said.
Though Dublin and London were still seeking more, Mr Ahern said the Ulster
Unionist Party also had questions to answer.
"We need to hear David Trimble and all of his party clearly state
that they want to see cross-party co-operation in the Assembly and that
they are prepared to work this," he said.
The "nonsense of the last four years created in many cases by him
and his colleagues of not working the institutions has to stop",
he said.
"If we get clarity on one side, we also need to get it on the other
side," he said.
However, Mr Trimble said there was "no moral equivalence" between
republicanism and unionism. "Nationalists know that the real problem
is the failure of republicans to stop all paramilitary activity,"
he said.
Expressing frustration with the unionist political leadership, Mr Adams
has appealed to ordinary unionists to do what they could to save the peace
process.
"We still need to work with unionism and I'm going to make some
remarks next week which I intend to be an attempt to express republican
concerns about unionist fears and sensitivities around all these matters.
"I would appeal almost over the head of their political leaders
to unionists to understand that we're now in a period of total political
uncertainty," he said, adding that the peace process now has "no
centre of gravity".
After the publication earlier this week of the IRA statement that the
British and Dublin governments used as a reason for the suspension of
elections in the Six Counties, Mr Adams called for the elections to go
ahead in June.
"The most important thing to say today is that Mr Blair's decision
to stop the elections is a serious mistake and a slap in the face to the
Good Friday Agreement," he said in Belfast.
The leadership of the IRA also issued a second statement on Tuesday night,
criticising the London and Dublin governments and accusing them of mischievously
leaking and misrepresenting "concepts and drafts" associated
with its first statement. This statement said that the army had in fact
being waiting for agreement and had been prepared to act immediately on
putting a quantity of munitions beyond use, with preparations at an advanced
stage.
"It's as if the rule book for conflict resolution has been torn
up," he said. "Peace requires justice and peace processes are
about empowering people, are about a rights-centred disposition and are
about making politics work."
Making reference to the current impasse, he said: "So where is the
peace process now? We have on the one hand a Joint Declaration from the
governments that is not an act of completion but a qualified plan to implement
over years the rights and entitlements of citizens. Despite its conditionality,
this is progress.
"But the two governments, also stepped outside the terms of the
Good Friday Agreement and introduced in their Joint Declaration, a further
concession to Mr Trimble in respect of sanctions. This process of excluding
ministers and parties is specifically aimed at Sinn Féin, and is
to be used against us in the event of any allegations about IRA activities."
Adams contrasted this approach to the IRA's actions in support of the
process.
"On the other hand, we have an IRA leadership that is determined
there will be no activities which will undermine in any way the peace
process and the Good Friday Agreement; that has clearly stated its willingness
to proceed with the implementation of a process to put arms beyond use
at the earliest opportunity, and despite the suspension of the institutions
authorised a third act of putting arms beyond use to be verified under
the agreed scheme by the IICD."
He also said that the IRA has accepted that the if the two governments
and all the parties fulfil their commitments, this will provide the basis
for the complete and final closure of the conflict and that this too is
significant progress.
The Sinn Féin leader said that no one should underestimate the
significance of the IRA engaging with the IICD (Independent International
Commission on Decommissioning) while the institutions are suspended, or
the IRA's willingness to undertake another act of putting arms beyond
use.
"This followed a suggestion by me to facilitate David Trimble's
stated intention of calling a UUC meeting only after the IRA acted on
the arms issue. The sequence of events was to be the Joint Declaration
and a statement from me in response to this, pointing up the difficulty
caused by David Trimble's refusal to commit to being part of institutions.
"He was then to publicly commit himself to recommending participation
in the institutions to the UUC. This public pledge would have triggered
the IRA putting more arms beyond use."
Adams also pointed out that the IRA had in fact been waiting for the
process to start moving, but had been left waiting.
"When the IRA say their arrangements were at an advanced stage they
mean that Volunteers sat for days with a substantial amount of equipment
waiting for a yes from the UUP or the British government. That yes never
came.
"So with the UUP implacably opposed to progress at this point and
a British government willing to exercise a unionist veto, we now face
into a period of political uncertainty."
He concluded by saying that Sinn Féin is in the peace process
to the end.
"Our objective in the time ahead will be to campaign to have elections
held, and to hold the two governments to the commitments which we negotiated
with them over many months and which are in the Joint Declaration.
He re-emphasised that the substance of the commitments in the Joint Declaration
and of those contained within the Good Friday Agreement is about the rights
and entitlements of citizens.
"It is about a new political dispensation on the island of Ireland
and a new relationship between Ireland and Britain. It is about change-fundamental
and deep-rooted change - including constitutional and institutional change
across all aspects of society."
GOVTS CHARADE
Speaking in the Dáil debate on the peace process this week, Sinn
Fein TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said both the British
and Irish governments have been engaged in a charade, pretending that
the IRA's initiative was not sufficient for them, but in reality shielding
David Trimble from the consequences of his actions.
Ó Caoláin accused the government of "a dereliction
of its duty and of helping to pave the way for the disgraceful decision
by Tony Blair to ban an Irish election".
"The Irish government is a co-equal partner in the Agreement with
the British government. The British government acts in British interests
as it sees them. The Irish government must act in the Irish national interest.
For decades while it was carrying on a brutal war in Ireland - a war highlighted
most recently by the Stevens Report - the British government pretended
to be the referee keeping the so-called 'two warring sides' apart. Are
we now to have that tragedy repeated as farce with both governments pretending
to be neutral arbiters while the unionist veto is allowed to succeed again?"
VIOLATION OF PRINCIPLES
Meanwhile, a group of prominent Irish-American activists, representing
a range of organsations, has issued a statement describing the British
government's decision to postpone elections into the indefinite future
as "a reprehensible violation of democratic principles".
"Either there is democracy or there is not, and there can be no democracy
without fair elections," they said. "Britain's participation
in a war to bring democracy to Iraq while at the same time denying democracy
in the north of Ireland is the height of hypocrisy.
"The people in the north of Ireland live, work and die there, not
Tony Blair and his colleagues in the British Parliament. They should be
allowed to cast an honest vote without political manipulation.
"Yesterday, Senator Edward Kennedy expressed his concern that this
postponement would seriously affect the peace process. He said, 'The unionists
cannot forever have a veto on the peace process. The people of Northern
Ireland deserve better.'
"When our organisations expressed similar concerns last year, we
were given assurances from the Irish government and the US Administration
that these elections would take place in May 2003.ÊDr Richard Haass
[the US government's top official for the Irish peace process] pointed
out in October 2002, soon after the suspension of the political institutions
by the British, that to postpone an election is to change an election's
result. He is absolutely right.
"We expect that the Irish and the American governments' responses
to this undemocratic action will be severe and helpful in restoring political
progress along democratic lines. The British government has unilaterally
suspended the political institutions established by this Agreement four
times since its signing. It has not implemented promises to demilitarising
the Six Counties it still militarily occupies. It has not provided required
basic human, judicial, economic and civil rights, nor established an effective,
non-sectarian policing service.
"The GFA established a political process to replace decades of prejudice,
repression, militarism and violence. These elections, already postponed
twice, cannot be used by the British government or unionist politicians
to silence the will of the people."
Those who signed the letter on behalf of the Unity in Action Committee
included representatives of the Irish American Unity Conference, the Ancient
Order of Hibernians, the Irish Northern Aid Committee, the Irish-American
Labour Coalition, Americans for a New Irish Agenda, the Brehan Law Society,
the Irish Parades Emergency Committee, and the Lawyers' Alliance for Justice
in Ireland.
NORMALISATION?
Meanwhile, a start to the dismantling of two watchtowers in south Armagh
was being seen as a rare concession to nationalists.
British army engineers removed spy cameras and the shell of the towers
at Cloghogue, south of Newry, and Tievecrum, near Forkhill, beginning
a process that could take up to six months.
The move was outlined in the joint declaration of the British and Irish
governments, published last week.
Sinn Feins Conor Murphy said people were justifiably delighted
that the towers were going but added that the pace of demilitarisation
was too slow.
Sinn Fein was asked this week what the feeling was on the ground in south
Armagh about the vacuum in the peace process, and if there was a danger
of any leakage from mainstream republicanism to dissidents following a
series of attacks.
Dissident republicans have carried out three attacks in four days, after
a coffee-jar bomb was fired at a PSNI police car in Armagh.
The so-called Continuity IRA claimed responsibility for the
bomb, which failed to explode.
The incident comes two days after dissident republicans were blamed for
leaving a pipe in Dublin, hours before Tony Blair arrived for talks with
the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.
And on Monday, the Real IRA claimed responsibility for a blast incendiary
bomb that was left outside a motor tax office in Belfast city centre.
Conor Murphy said there was not a leakage to dissidents, although people
were intensely frustrated, for example, about all the hype over demilitarisation.
People will remember that this is the third announcement that Clogh
post is to go and it has not gone yet, he said.
People are justifiably sceptical until they see these things actually
happen. We have only had one post completely removed in south Armagh since
the IRA ceasefire nearly a decade ago.
So, there has been an awful lot of anger and frustration about
the activity of the British army and the minimal pace of demilitarisation
in the area.
Yet people have stuck very firmly with the leadership of the republican
movement in supporting the peace process, and I dont see that changing.
Mr Murphy stressed that people know that we are facing very difficult
times.
Yes, they are frustrated and angry that the British prime minister
has come in and withdrawn arbitrarily their rights to vote in the election.
But they are farsighted enough to know that the peace process and the
Good Friday Agreement are the only way forward, he said.
Toni Carragher, of the South Armagh Farmers and Residents Committee,
said she questioned the armys credibility after they admitted that
it could take six months to dismantle the two installations.
They still claim there is a threat, but the fact that there were
no checkpoints and roads closed off close to the two sites shows that
they feel they can work away at ease, she said.
I think that speaks for itself and all the spytowers should come
down immediately.
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