VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, [2] ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 07:51:50 07/06/02 Sat
Author: Lynn Msc
Subject: Blair pressured to stop violence

Reuters |------------------------------------------------------
Friday July 5, 07:20 AM

HILLSBOROUGH (Reuters) - Prime Minster Tony Blair has pledged to tackle rising street violence in Northern Ireland amid fears the disorder is damaging the province's fragile peace process.

Speaking after he and Irish counterpart Bertie Ahern held talks with leaders of the political parties which support the landmark 1998 Good Friday Agreement, Blair said there was "no tolerable or acceptable level of violence".


Political leaders from both sides of the province's sectarian divide have expressed concern after recent weeks have seen the worst rioting for some years between majority Protestants and minority Catholics.


"There has been a sense... that the governments have come to somehow view there is some acceptable or tolerable level of violence -- there isn't," Blair told reporters after the talks at Hillsborough Castle, south of Belfast.


"This was always going to be a process of transition, but it is a process of transition away from violence to exclusively peaceful and democratic means."


Ahern said the peace agreement, co-sponsored by the British and Irish governments, "was always about moving away from a society that had a paramilitary element to it and moving to a democratic process".


"Nobody ever believed that would not have its own difficulties, but we all clearly understood it would be an irreversible process," he added.


Police in the province have blamed both Protestant paramilitaries, who want to retain links with Britain, and Catholic groups seeking Irish unity, for stoking the recent disorder including massive riots in Belfast.


WANING CONFIDENCE IN PEACE PROCESS


Northern Ireland's main Protestant political leader, First Minister David Trimble, requested the talks with Blair and Ahern because he faced mounting opposition to the Good Friday deal from within his own Ulster Unionist Party.


Trimble, who did not stay for the concluding "round-table" session of Thursday's talks, indicated he wanted to see concrete proposals from the two governments by the end of the month.


"There is a very serious loss of confidence in the unionist community," he said.


Unionists have been alarmed in recent months by reports the IRA, the group whose political ally Sinn Fein sits in the Northern Ireland's power-sharing coalition, was involved in arms testing in Colombia.


This and other allegations of paramilitary activity by the IRA and dissident republicans have resulted in pressure on Trimble to eject Sinn Fein from the government.


Responding to Trimble's comments, senior Sinn Fein member Mitchell McLauglin said: "Deadlines or red lines are not the solution, the solution is for political leaders to work together."


The meeting comes days after pro-Irish nationalists clashed with police in Belfast following a parade past a Catholic neighbourhood by the Orange Order, which annually celebrates centuries-old Protestant victories over Catholics.


The marches continue this weekend, with "Drumcree Sunday" in Portadown, southwest of Belfast. Traditionally the most contentious summer parade, it passed off relatively peacefully last year amid a massive police and army presence.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]
[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT+0
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.