Pro-british Party's Threat Deals Blow To Talks On Northern Ireland

July 23, 1997|By From Tribune News Services.

BELFAST — Peace efforts in Northern Ireland suffered a blow Tuesday when London acknowledged that pro-British politicians were set to block proposals on how guerrilla groups should hand in their arms.

At the same time, another pro-British political party announced it was quitting multiparty talks on the future of the province.

Protestant leader Ian Paisley said after meeting Prime Minister Tony Blair at his Downing Street office that the talks in Belfast are "dead in the water."

Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party planned to walk out after a vote on decommissioning guerrilla arms is held at multiparty peace talks in Belfast on Wednesday. Paisley's party is the second largest representing Protestants in Northern Ireland. A smaller party, the UK Unionists, withdrew from the talks Monday.

The government has been consulting Protestant unionist politicians from Northern Ireland who are angered by the terms of a weekend cease-fire by Irish Republican Army guerrillas who have been fighting British rule for 28 years.

The cease-fire was intended to secure a seat at peace talks in September.

Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam said she has not given up hope of a positive vote Wednesday, but she added, "It is becoming less clear, and more likely that there won't be an agreement tomorrow afternoon."

The main party representing the province's Protestant majority, the Ulster Unionist Party, made clear it would oppose the government's arms decommissioning plans Wednesday but would not walk out of the talks.

Ken Maginnis, the UUP's security affairs spokesman, said, "My understanding is that there has been no immediate breakthrough, and on that basis it is certain that we will be voting down the government's paper.

"However it would be the Ulster Unionist Party's intention to maintain its link both with Downing Street and with the political process. It is not our way to abdicate our responsibility to the electorate."

Paisley's intransigence and other protests from inside Protestant ranks are heaping pressure on David Trimble, leader of the Ulster Unionists.

The Orange Order, the long-dominant Protestant fraternal group linked with Trimble's party, also urged him to withdraw.

But liberal Anglican, Methodist and Presbyterian church leaders pleaded for Trimble to stay involved. Representatives of pro-British paramilitary groups, who seem to relish the chance of tackling the IRA's political arm, Sinn Fein, in talks, said Paisley is a coward.

"Any unionist worth his salt should be inside the negotiating chamber, fighting tooth and nail against the IRA, exposing the obvious weaknesses of their arguments for the world to see--not letting Sinn Fein win by default," said David Ervine, who represents the outlawed Ulster Volunteer Force in the talks.

The unionists oppose allowing spokesmen from Sinn Fein into the talks without any firm commitment from IRA guerrillas to hand in their guns and explosives.

Political sources said that if the government loses the vote on decommissioning, talks could continue either on a bilateral basis between factions or as "proximity" talks in separate rooms.

Despite the expected rebuff Wednesday, Mowlam said the government remains committed to a Sept. 15 target for the start of substantive peace talks as opposed to negotiations about how they should proceed.