Northern Ireland:
Peace process "in gravest danger"
by Daphne Liddle "The peace process is in the gravest danger it's ever been in", says Sinn Fein spokesperson Gerry MacLochlainn. The attempts by Britain's Labour Government to push through legislation rewriting last year's Good Friday Agreement (GFA), pandering to the undemocratic demands of the Unionists, and the subsequent rejection of the deal by the Unionists, has created a crisis in the peace process. The Unionists have sabotaged all attempts to set up the Northern Ireland Assembly according to the terms of GFA. Deadline after deadline has passed and they have refused to sit in the same Assembly as elected representatives of Sinn Fein, using the issue of IRA decommissioning (surrendering weapons) as an excuse. "We are most exceptionally disappointed but not surprised", said Gerry MacLochlainn. He pointed out that the Good Friday Agreement had demanded compromise and sacrifice from all involved in the negotiations. From the point of view of the nationalist community in the occupied north of Ireland it was a far from ideal agreement but it was the best chance available to transfer the struggle to the political arena and end armed conflict in the six counties. "Now Unionist leader Trimble has betrayed his own people and all the people of Ireland who voted for the Agreement — and the people of Britain who will pick up the tab of whatever Unionism throws down." At a public meeting in London, Gerry MacLochlainn declared the Unionist leaders incapable of showing the courage that tens of thousands of Unionist people had shown in voting for change. The different political, religious, community and other groups who had backed the GFA "have all been betrayed", he said. "I am a Republican, fighting for a free, independent and whole Ireland. We Republicans have shown ourselves willing to work within the terms of the GFA. It is the Unionists who are subverting the process. "The best chance for peace in 70 years is now in the gravest danger." He reminded the meeting that decommissioning never was a pre-requisite in the terms of the GFA and that no elected representatives could be disqualified from the Assembly without the agreement of all sides. Sinn Fein has called for the other parts of the GFA to be implemented immediately: the setting up of crossborder authorities — staffed by civil servants in the absence of the Assembly — and the disbandment and replacement of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), pointing out that the GFA cannot legally be altered without the agreement of the other sovereign government to sign it — Ireland. But already Britain's Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlem has breached it by ruling out the disbanding of the RUC. Sinn Fein has received phone calls from a number of Unionists who in no way agree with Sinn Fein's policies but who sincerely want peace and change and equality of civil rights. Gerry MacLochlainn compared the situation to that of South Africa just before the end of apartheid where white armed racists had threatened a bloodbath if black people were given equal rights. "In the event, they melted away when they saw that change was inevitable." And he predicted that the warmongers among the Unionists would do the same.* * * New Worker (abridged)