London recognises loyalist ceasefire – ISN
November 16th, 2004
DERRY – A busy week of activity in Northern Ireland culminated with the British government on Monday officially recognizing the ceasefire declared by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), Northern Ireland’s largest “loyalist” (Protestant) paramilitary group.
The recognition came despite the publication of an Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) report that said that the UDA continued to be involved in crime and internal feuding and exercised gangland-style control over loyalist urban areas in Northern Ireland. However, the report did note a reduction in UDA activity since the last report was published six months ago.
The IMC is a British-Irish taskforce appointed to assess the activity of Northern Ireland’s paramilitary groups. The move followed consultations between Britain’s Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Paul Murphy and the Ulster Political Research Group, a think-tank affiliated with the UDA. Last weekend, at the Ulster Unionist Party’s (UUP) annual conference, leader David Trimble accused the rival Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) of ‘letting the Irish Republican Army (IRA) off the hook’ at the recent talks, which failed to restore devolution to Northern Ireland – a core component of the 1998 peace agreement that marked the end of a 30-year conflict.
Trimble, whose party has been succeeded by the DUP as the largest Unionist party, said that the DUP had missed the opportunity to discover how committed the IRA was to decommissioning weapons. Sources close to the Irish and British governments suggested that a serious IRA offer to hand over guns was made at the talks, as part of a deal to restore the power-sharing Executive and Assembly to Belfast. The IRA is linked to Sinn Fein, the largest nationalist party in Northern Ireland.
The DUP and Sinn Fein will have to cut a deal on power-sharing, the destruction of paramilitary arms, policing powers, and the nature of authority given to a Northern Ireland executive, if devolution is to be restored to Northern Ireland. Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams was in Washington, D.C., last week, to discuss US policy on Northern Ireland with senior officials, in the aftermath of US President George Bush’s re-election.
Adams wants the US to push stronger for devolution in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland was a key foreign policy success story for the Clinton administration, but the Bush presidency has taken a more laissez-faire approach to the peace process there.
Meanwhile, the Irish and British governments are to submit proposals on Wednesday aimed at restoring devolution to Northern Ireland. The main protagonists – the DUP and Sinn Féin – are expected to be given a week to respond. As things stand, the Irish and British governments are working to a 25 November deadline for the parties to reach agreement and move towards restoring devolution
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