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Richard
Sherriff
RESIDENTS
of a Protestant enclave in west Belfast are being intimidated in a
deliberate attempt to force them out of the area, it was claimed
yesterday, Sunday.
Peace
talks may teeter if violence on streets persists
Rioters on
Springfield road, west Belfast, after the weekend's Orange Order
parade passed off peacefully further up the road
Talks about smoothing out the peace process were in danger today of being dominated by street violence. Thursday's summit between the Northern Ireland parties, Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach( Irish for Prime Minister), Bertie Ahern could be sidetracked by increasing tensions tied to the marching season. Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams, who was due to hold preliminary talks with Mr Ahern in Dublin today, claimed he would do his part in ending republican violence - but his party's youth wing was accused of orchestrating a mob attack on a police station. UUP leader David Trimble is expected to point to the Fermanagh attack and violence in Belfast when he calls on Mr Blair to take action against Sinn Fein. There are no plans for Thursday's talks to feature a round table meeting of all parties, but otherwise the format is believed to be open. All the parties are expected to have individual joint meetings with the two premiers and could have separate side talks with each other. Sinn Fein will want to concentrate on policing, while unionists will press their concerns that republicans are shifting back towards violence. Members of Sinn Fein's youth wing were accused by the Police Service of Northern Ireland yesterday of attacking the police station in Roslea with stones and bottles. Republicans have also been accused by unionists of initiating street clashes in Belfast in recent weeks and of continuing to breach the IRA ceasefire. In a bid to allay unionist concerns, Mr Adams told an inauguration dinner for the party's first Lord Mayor, Alex Maskey on Saturday night that he wanted to play "a leadership role" in trying to bring an end to republican violence. "I want to reiterate again that Irish republicans are absolutely and firmly committed to the peace process," he said. "I want to assure unionists that the republican promotion of the equality and justice and human rights agenda is about securing the entitlements of every citizen and of building a strong and open democracy in which we can all promote and articulate our differing goals peacefully and democratically." But Mr Trimble warned Mr Blair that if republicans were not forced at crisis talks in Northern Ireland, involving the British and Irish governments and the pro-Good Friday Agreement parties, to abandon violence once and for all, it would lose public support. "I think this might actually be Tony Blair's last chance to get a grip on the situation," he said. "It is clear, and senior police officers have said this, that the violence has been orchestrated by paramilitaries on all sides but primarily by the republican movement, and we've had a serious increase of violence and no effective action so far by the Government in response to this." Senator George Mitchell, who brokered the Good Friday Agreement said today the people of Northern Ireland must be "patient, steady and forward looking" at a time of great strain on the peace process.
The hit
list and the questions!
Belfast Telegraph, Publication Date: 24 April 2002 THE Castlereagh police station break-in for sheer cheek takes the bun. But it may yet save the Agreement by alerting supporters to its danger. To save the experiment, though, urgent questions require answers: The first is why supporters of one party inside Government, their hands on the levers of power, find it necessary to keep updating a computer database on the private movements of politicians in another - outside it. The party in Government denies it; but we have the word of the police. They have had the list for a fortnight. The second question is related to the first; and it seeks the reason why journalists were briefed on the list by the police while no one briefed the people whose names were on it. The third question, asked often but never answered, is why Sinn Fein is unacceptable as a partner in government south of the border, but quite acceptable in one north of it. A fourth is to ask Mr Trimble whether he has discussed the matter with Mr Ahern, champion of this peculiar orthodoxy. Jim Mitchell, deputy leader of Fine Gael, said last week that the rules down south were different. Many of us would like to know how they are different - and why. A fifth question is to ask General de Chastelain how the muzzle velocity of the old iron, decommissioned in the latest republican exercise, measures up to their reputed new stuff: Russian AN94s capable of 30 bullets a second through body armour. A sixth question is to ask Dr Reid, who expressed himself delighted by the latest exercise in invisible decommissioning, why he said nothing about the reports available to Government about IRA rearming until they were leaked. A seventh question is why Mr Adams is not in Washington today answering, before a Congressional Committee packed with Sinn Fein sympathisers, the allegation that the republicans arrested in Colombia were training Farc terrorists: murderers of 13 Americans, kidnapper of a hundred more and financing itself by getting Americans high on cocaine. At the bottom of all this, of course, is a single issue: whether we can climb out of the political sink of the last 35 years and make hay while the sun shines. But to do that the new regime must be able to rise above the charge that some of its minions still sup off the poisoned politics of violence. It remains open to that charge so long as a party in the Government keeps an illegal army, heavily armed, whose rank and file, according to the police, keep tabs on the movements of their opponents. This behaviour has no place in a Parliamentary democracy. One result of it is that there are now branches of the Conservative Party in Northern Ireland which book club and committee meetings in hotels under other labels than Conservative. They do not squeal about it. But it is a crying disgrace that they have been advised it is prudent. What sort of peace process is this? That party has suffered grievously at the hands of republicans. That is why the police disclosure of the latest terrorist list matters. In the past, when an able home-grown Tory appeared well positioned to take a Westminster seat, a murder squad lay in wait for him at his home and would have killed him had not his wife had the spirit to press an alarm button linked to the police. His would-be executioners were jailed but, shortly after the outrage, he and his family left Northern Ireland. Compiling a dossier on the private movements of political opponents smacks of sink politics, of the fascist state. Supporters of the Agreement reckoned all this was over. If it is not, it bodes ill for its survival. Day the Boyne turned Orange
IT'S THE battlefield that has divided the nation into green and
orange for over 300 years ...but yesterday it played its own
highly significant role in the peace process that is slowly but
surely starting to draw those two strands of Irish society back
together.
For only the third time in history, the 'green grassy banks'
of the Boyne immortalised in the Loyalist anthem played host
to an Orange army.The first time was in 1690 when the
Protestant King William of Orange defeated Catholic King James
II's Jacobite army. The second was a low key but tense visit
in 1990 to mark the 300th anniversary of the battle. That was
surrounded by massive security.
This year, for the third visit, not only was security minimal
but the guest of honour was DUP leader and firebrand loyalist
preacher Dr Ian Paisley. Union jacks fluttered in the
afternoon breeze and ceremonial swords glinted in the Saturday
sun as about 500 members of Dr Paisley's Independent Orange
Order made their way to the site of the battle - which is
being developed as a Battle of the Boyne theme park by the
Irish Government. The blue skies of Leinster only threatened
briefly to grey over for the Ulstermen, as they burst into a
spirited rendition of God Save The Queen.
Only a small group of tricolour-waving locals turned out to
protest. Elsewhere, only a handful of bemused gardaí watched
impassively as the loyal sons of Ulster marched towards the
Boyne.At the field where King Billy put the Jacobites to
flight, Dr Paisley said it was 'good to be back'. When asked
how it felt to be at the site of the battle, he quipped: 'It's
always good to be standing above the waters of the Boyne - as
long as we're not floating down it.'
The march was attended by a mainly elderly group of marchers.
And even as loyalism's ageing canon thundered against the old
enemy, most of the younger bandsmen and attendees failed to
listen, preferring to look at the horses and talk to the
themed-actors whom the Government pays to commemorate the
battle site at Sheepstown, Co. Louth.Dr Paisley warned that
the British Government will be forced to renegotiate the Good
Friday Agreement in the coming months and predicted the
British and Irish Governments would inevitably be forced to
set up a new devolved government in the North.He also warned
that the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, would have to
resolve the problems surrounding the coming marching season.
Though he was 'optimistic' that marches in the North would be
peaceful, Dr Paisley said the issue of Drumcree still
'rankled' with many Protestants in the North and would have to
be resolved.'I spoke to the [British] Prime Minister recently
and said he could not wash his hands of Drumcree,' he said.
'There's a lot of ill feeling about Drumcree and it is causing
a problem in the body politic.'But Dr Paisley predicted
victory in both his party's current legal challenge in the
British House of Lords and next year's Assembly elections in
the North. Those victories would change the political
landscape in Northern Ireland, the DUP leader said.Yesterday's
march passed off peacefully as the organisation presented Mr
Paisley with a medal to commemorate the Order's centenary.
Monday, 1 July, 2002, 06:23 GMT 07:23 UK Adams and Ahern in talks Problems in the Northern Ireland peace process will be on the agenda at a meeting between Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern and Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams in Dublin. Monday's meeting was requested by Sinn Fein because of "a need for a rigorous review of progress made so far in implementing the Good Friday Agreement". The party's ruling executive, the Ard Comhairle, met in Dublin on Saturday to discuss the peace process and continuing sectarian violence in Northern Ireland. Caoimhghin O'Caolain, the leader of Sinn Fein's five-strong membership of the Irish parliament, said there was a "serious escalation in loyalist-orchestrated sectarian attacks across Belfast". "The Good Friday Agreement guarantees everybody the right to live free from sectarian harassment," he said. "But in the current climate of fear and intimidation, these are just meaningless words." Sanctions call Monday's meeting in Dublin comes ahead of crisis talks between the British and Irish prime ministers and the pro-Agreement parties later in the week. Thursday's talks were called two weeks ago amid diminishing confidence in the peace process. It followed revelations that a security assessment said the IRA had been developing and testing new weapons in Colombia. Unionists are likely to press the UK Prime Minister Tony Blair to place sanctions on republicans. But Sinn Fein, in turn, has said it will challenge the British Government over "its failure to deliver a new policing service and on crucial issues, such as demilitarisation, equality agenda and a bill of rights". "This must be the focus of all the
pro-Agreement parties and the two governments in the coming
period," said Mr O'Caolain. D-day
for decision on Drumcree THE Parades Commission was meeting in Belfast today to finalise its Drumcree decision - but no surprises were expected. The Commission was expected to ban Sunday's controversial Orange march from Portadown's Garvaghy Road for the fifth year running. Just last week the Commission blocked a protest march along the same route by Portadown Orangemen, saying there was no indication of a drive for a settlement. "The Commission is unaware of any meaningful engagement with residents about this parade," last week's determination said. Portadown sources said today that there were no indications of last minute moves to reverse that position. This year's ruling, which was expected to be issued later today, was considered by sources outside the dispute to be less sensitive than in other years. While Drumcree can always be explosive, there were indications that Orange brethren from outside Portadown were less inclined to take part in sustained protests outside the area. Loyalist paramilitaries have also suggested they are less likely to be involved in the protest - although real security concerns remain about their intentions in Belfast. And last week the police commander in the region, Assistant Chief Constable Stephen White, indicated that he hoped he could put forward a less severe security operation. He said: "My desire is to police the operation, whatever the Parades Commission determination, in such a way that it's proportionate to these views and the actual threat posed." Mr White will have up to 1,000 police officers, four Army battalions and water cannon at his disposal.
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