BELFAST (Reuters) - Northern Ireland's peace process ground to a halt Friday when Britain suspended a power-sharing government of Roman Catholics and Protestants because of failure by the IRA to start disarming.

"We have decided to suspend the executive and the institutions," Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson said in an announcement that returned direct rule from Britain.

Mandelson said there was no time limit on how long the suspension would last.

The move, coming after two weeks of political turmoil that saw Protestant First Minister David Trimble threatening to resign over the guerrillas' refusal to scrap their arsenals, was the worst setback yet to the landmark Good Friday peace accord.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair's office said while there had been progress on disarmament it was not enough to stop suspension of Northern Ireland home rule.

"Clearly there has been progress in the discussions that have been taking place, but the clarity that was called for was not there when Peter Mandelson made his decision," said a spokesman for Blair.

The Irish Republican Army has given Northern Ireland's independent decommissioning body an outline of how it intends to proceed with disarmament, the body looking into getting rid of weapons in the province said in a report released Friday.

The decommissioning body said it believed the commitment given by the IRA "holds out the real prospect of an agreement which would enable it to fulfill the substance of its (the body's) mandate."

"The (IRA) representative indicated to us today the context in which the IRA will initiate a comprehensive process to put arms beyond use, in a manner as to ensure maximum public confidence," the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning said in a report, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.

The commission, headed by retired Canadian Gen. John de Chastelain, said it would make a further report to the governments of Britain and Ireland as appropriate.

GOOD FRIDAY ACCORD IN TROUBLE

The Good Friday agreement ended 30 years of sectarian bloodshed in which more than 3,000 people died and there were fears the suspension could open the way for gunmen on both sides to end cease-fires and resume their campaigns of violence.

"We have got to clear up this issue of decommissioning (disarmament) once and for all. It has dogged the process throughout. It has sapped the confidence of the institutions," Mandelson said.

Unionists, led by Trimble, had threatened to pull out of the 72-day-old power sharing government, which involved Gerry Adams' Sinn Fein, the IRA's political ally, if guerrillas did not start disarming.

The British government rushed legislation through parliament this week to pave the way for the shelving of the provincial government and new all-Ireland political structures that were core parts of the Good Friday agreement of April 1998.

SUSPENSION MAY BE TEMPORARY

Britain said it preferred to suspend the government in the hope of reviving it after a short time rather than see it totally collapse, which would been the effect if Trimble had resigned.

Trimble, whose resignation was due to take effect at a convention of his Ulster Unionist Party Saturday, said he was sorry the coalition had to be put on ice.

"Naturally we regret the fact that this has become necessary," he told reporters at Stormont, the home of Northern Ireland's elected assembly.

"We have taken the risks and others, we are sorry, did not take the same risks, and we're not prepared to move," he said. "There can be no further place in the politics of Northern Ireland for private armies and their guns."

source:
http://news.lycos.com/headlines/

Back to the European Continent Menu
Back to News Archive Menu