Cautious hope for new Ulster talks.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Cautious hope for new Ulster talks.
4
Wed, 09-01-2004 - 10:30am

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/northernirelandassembly/story/0,9061,1294909,00.html


Three weeks of intensive negotiations aimed at resurrecting the Northern Ireland assembly get under way today.


The Rev Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist party (DUP), now the largest unionist force in the province since elections earlier this year, is opposed to the Good Friday agreement and refuses to meet the largest nationalist group, Sinn Féin.

Tony Blair and the Irish leader, Bertie Ahern, will join the talks for a 48-hour finale on September 16-18, nearly two years after the Stormont assembly was suspended.

Today, the Northern Ireland secretary, Paul Murphy, expressed cautious hope that common ground could be found during the talks.

As he prepared to hold talks with the political parties at Stormont in a run-up to crucial negotiations at Leeds Castle in Kent, Mr Murphy said the mood was right to break the deadlock.

He said: "There is no question in my mind that all political parties in Northern Ireland really do want devolution back and the ability to run their own affairs."

But he admitted that finding a compromise between the DUP and Sinn Féin was a tough challenge.

The 78-year old Mr Paisley, who was hospitalised over the summer, is demanding fundamental changes to the agreement and the disbanding of the IRA before it will agree to share power with republicans.

Sinn Féin, on the other hand, are demanding the complete implementation of the Good Friday Agreement and an immediate devolution of policing and criminal justice powers to Stormont.

Mr Murphy said: "This is a different problem that we face that the DUP is opposed to the agreement and the other parties are in favour.




"And yet there are issues which are commonly held by all the parties - for example, the principle of consent is now common to everybody."

A sign of the importance of these potentially last-ditch talks was the arrival of Mr Blair's chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, in Belfast.

Mr Powell has maintained close contact with the DUP and Sinn Féin throughout the summer.

Yesterday, Downing Street said the aim of the Leeds Castle talks was to secure a deal. The prime minister's official spokesman said there was no reason to delay the process and all the parties were committed to finding a way forward.

But the Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble, was not present at today's meeting, as he was attending the Republican party convention in New York.

The Irish foreign minister, Brian Cowen, is also travelling to Belfast this afternoon to hold talks with the parties.

Yesterday, Mr Ahern identified the decommissioning of all paramilitary weapons and the need for the republican movement to back the new policing arrangements as vital in securing a deal.

The president of Sinn Féin, Gerry Adams, said there was a heavy onus on both the DUP and his party to agree measures within the terms of the agreement which could bring all outstanding issues to a definitive end.

Last week former US president Bill Clinton met the leading parties as part of a semi-official two-day goodwill trip to Belfast.


Peaceful without peace.


http://politics.guardian.co.uk/northernirelandassembly/comment/0,9236,1294451,00.html


'No Deals until IRA Disbands' - Paisley.


 http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3439460

cl-Libraone~

 


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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2003
Wed, 09-01-2004 - 12:48pm
<>

One step at a time.

<<'No Deals until IRA Disbands' >>

Not a promising attitude!

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Wed, 09-01-2004 - 1:22pm

There's more hope for a resolution than there was 30 or so years ago. Glad to Clinton was there, even informally.


This is why have such little faith

 


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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-09-2003
Fri, 09-03-2004 - 8:56pm
The peace issue in Northern Ireland is miles apart and significantly different from any peace issue in the Middle East or anywhere else for that matter.

My family lives in Belfast, N. Ireland. They are Catholics living in an area where mostly Protestants live. They get along well with their neighbours, and for the most part, religious denominations are not important to them. However, when I went there in June, there were some taxi drivers who would not drive me home. There are streets that I could not walk down. My grandmother, 106 years of age, had all the windows smashed in her house.

It is my opinion that there will always be fighting amoung these two groups of people, regardless of who governs them. I wish I could beleive otherwise.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Fri, 09-03-2004 - 11:14pm

"It is my opinion that there will always be fighting amoung these two groups of people, regardless of who governs them. I wish I could beleive otherwise."


I agree. The point I was making was if two groups in N.Ireland, the same race; both Christian; both speak the same language, can't get along because of events that took place 200 yrs. ago. How can one expect all the different tribes/races/religions/languages to live together peacefully in the Middle East.


Things are better than they were 30 years ago. Much of the vanderlism nowadays

 


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