Struggle for peace in Ireland continues

The British Government, and its Unionist allies, are still manoeuvring 
to oust Sinn Fein from the new Northern Ireland administration. The Blair 
Government is irresponsibly following the example set by its Tory 
predecessors in trying to move the goalposts in the peace process.

Using supposed IRA transgression of the disarming ("decommissioning") 
process as justification, Tony Blair proposed, earlier this month, a 
special legislative clause expressly to exclude Sinn Fein while allowing 
the devolution of government from Westminster to Belfast to go on with the 
Unionists and the Social Democratic & Labour Party (SDLP).

President of Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams, said this move would breach the 
Agreement. The Agreement itself has the highest democratic credentials.

It ceased to be a negotiating position the moment it was tested by a 
referendum. It was confirmed by a cross-community vote of over 71 per cent 
on May 22 last year, and both communities therefore expect their political 
representatives to carry that through.

The path out of the conflict has been chosen and the basis for change in 
the north and between north and south is sealed in that vote.

In a declaration issued following the failure to set up institutions for 
the transfer of powers from Westminster to the Northern Ireland Assembly by 
the July 1 deadline, Sinn Fein said it had gone "beyond anything we are 
obliged or required to do under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement".

Unionist hardliners scuppered the transfer deadline on the issue of 
decommissioning.

The Unionists are claiming, contrary to the Agreement, that the Irish 
Republican Army (IRA) must disarm before Sinn Fein can take up its mandated 
posts on the shadow Northern Ireland Assembly executive.

The Agreement in fact stipulates that all arms be removed and 
requires a process of general demilitarisation with May 2000 as the 
Agreement deadline for completion. The Agreement does not say Sinn Fein can 
only take part when the IRA disarms.

What it does require is for political parties to have the necessary support 
at the ballot box in order to sit in the Assembly, a condition Sinn Fein 
has met.

It should be remembered that it was the SDLP and Sinn Fein who took the 
initiative in putting the Peace Process on the political agenda.

Decommissioning is not being raised at this time by people committed to 
peace but by those who want to delay the peace process.

It is being raised by those who are opposed to social reform and a more 
equitable society. The heart of the peace process is the struggle to 
achieve social justice, an end to sectarian discrimination, the removal of 
fear and the building of confidence.

The Agreement, though far from meeting Nationalist and Republican longer 
term demands, has come to form the basis for pressing more wholeheartedly 
for social and economic needs across the board.

The IRA has maintained a cease-fire for two years despite continued 
Loyalist attacks on nationalists. Two weeks ago SDLP leader John Hume 
acknowledged: "I now believe that Sinn Fein and the movement to which they 
belong are totally committed to the peace process and removing the gun."

The British Government, however, is playing along with those in the 
Unionist ranks who say they would not sit in an Assembly with Sinn Fein 
unless IRA disarmament was well under way.

The Government chooses to ignore the fact that many of those making this 
demand have been opposed to the Good Friday Agreement all along and 
wouldn't want to sit in an Assembly with Sinn Fein under any circumstances.

Meanwhile, it allows the seasonal upsurge of Loyalist bigotry around the 
Orange Order marches and well-publicised internal party pressures on 
Unionist leader David Trimble to provide the pretext for stepped-up demands 
on the IRA.

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