Lat chance for NI peace deal, says Blair (Washington Post) -- Irish Media Watch Message Board

Friday, December 25, 2009 03:55:20pm Ireland Time [ VoyUser Login optional ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, [6], 7, 8, 9, 10 ]

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

Date Posted: 02:12:33 09/16/04 Thu GMT
Author: Lynn
Subject: Lat chance for NI peace deal, says Blair (Washington Post)

washingtonpost.com
Last Chance for N.Ireland Peace Deal, Says Blair
Reuters
Friday, September 10, 2004; 11:00 AM
By Katherine Baldwin

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Tony Blair said on Friday talks next week designed to restore a deal that shares power in Northern Ireland between the divided Protestant and Catholic communities were a final chance to salvage the accord.

Northern Ireland's political leaders meet on September 16-18 at Leeds Castle in Southern England in a bid to resurrect the historic 1998 Good Friday agreement, which largely ended 30 years of sectarian conflict in the British province.

"The elements are clear. The question is, 'Is the will clear and do people really want to do it?' This is the chance," the prime minister told reporters after talks with his Irish counterpart Bertie Ahern in Sedgefield, northern England.

"There comes a point where the final decisions have got to be made and they've got to be made in a way that brings closure and that's where we are now," he added.

The U.S.-brokered Good Friday accord set up a regional government in Belfast where power was shared between Protestants, who want the province to remain part of Britain, and Catholics who want it to unite with the rest of Ireland.

But the power-sharing agreement collapsed in October 2002 and London took over direct control of the province.

At the heart of the problem lies the continued existence of the outlawed Irish Republican Army (IRA) guerrilla group.

Although it has been observing a cease-fire since 1997, it has refused to disband or hand over all its weapons, to the fury of Protestant politicians in the province.

Blair, who has staked much political capital on achieving peace in the province of 1.7 million people where some 3,600 people died in sectarian violence, said the British and Irish governments had done all they could on brokering a deal.

"There has to be a complete and unequivocal end to violence and there has to be a willingness on that basis to share power," Blair said.

But the DUP, the dominant Protestant party, and Sinn Fein, the main Catholic party and political ally of the IRA, were not optimistic about the chances of a breakthrough next week.

"The DUP are avowedly and publicly for bringing down the Good Friday Agreement and we are for protecting it ... and therefore it is hard to try and take any optimistic view of where we are with the DUP," Sinn Fein's Gerry Kelly told Reuters.

The DUP has refused to talk directly with Sinn Fein and another Sinn Fein source said party negotiators were currently "more pessimistic than optimistic" about the chances of a deal.

London and Dublin say the agreement must include a complete end to paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland, disarming of guerrilla groups, a clear commitment to an inclusive power-sharing government and police reform.

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

[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 2.94, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums^(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2008 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.