Subject:  Disarmament first, insists hardline unionist |
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Dáithí
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Date Posted: 15:16:39 07/15/01 Sun
The IRA must begin destroying its weapons before there can be any further reforms on policing or moves to demolish army watchtowers, a hardline unionist has insisted.
In an uncompromising message to the two governments, Jeffrey Donaldson, a key member of the Ulster Unionist negotiating team, said his party was not in the business of trading off concessions in return for disarmament.
Mr Donaldson, a hardline critic of the Good Friday Agreement, said a final package of proposals due to be issued to the parties must include actual decommissioning.
"Weapons must be rendered permanently unusable and permanently unavailable. Talk of sealed arms dumps isn't enough," he said.
"Our bottom line is that there cannot be progress on any of the other issues until there is actual decommissioning and therefore we will want to see in any paper that emerges whether there are clear proposals for actual decommissioning to occur."
The Lagan Valley MP was speaking after five days of intense discussions at Weston Park on the Shropshire/Staffordshire border failed to break the deadlock in the Northern Ireland peace process.
With the negotiations at an end, the British and Irish premiers now have until August 12 to produce a blueprint for the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement that will be acceptable to all parties.
But the Ulster Unionist demand for decommissioning before progress on any other area can take place appears to be at odds with the Government's determination to produce an set of inclusive, non-negotiable proposals.
In a joint statement made after the West Park talks, the governments said: "While each of these issues is best addressed on its own terms rather than being seen as a precondition for progress on any other, the agreement can only succeed if all parts of it are implemented together."
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