‘British must deliver on Agreement’

THE deadlock in the Northern peace process will only be broken by St Patrick’s Day if the British Government delivers on the outstanding promises of the Good Friday Agreement, Sinn Féin chairperson Mitchel McLoughlin claimed yesterday.

A fresh bid to restore the collapsed Northern power-sharing executive will be made on March 3 when British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern meet with all the parties again in Belfast.

Mr McLoughlin is currently on a tour of Munster asking people to support the Good Friday Agreement to save the peace process. The British and Irish Governments failed to produce anything new at the meeting of all parties in Hillsborough Castle last week, Mr McLoughlin claimed.

"Mr Blair and Mr Ahern will have to come up with something concrete on March 3, if there is to be any hope of restoring the power-sharing executive," said the Sinn Féin chairperson.

Sinn Féin gave the British Government a list of 57 outstanding items from the Good Friday Agreement that have not yet been delivered upon and Mr Blair has yet to respond to these, Mr McLoughlin said.

The main outstanding issues include:

demilitarisation a detailed plan for normalisation of security forces subject to security considerations.

policing full implementation of the Patton Report which gave the Northern Ireland Policing Board full control.

improvements in the criminal justice system and equality agenda.

Mr McLoughlin said that the proposed changes in the Northern Ireland Policing Board due to be brought before the House of Commons on March 4 do not address the main issue of who controls the police force.

Mr Blair has repeatedly insisted that the IRA must deliver "acts of completion" on arms before there can be any concessions on policing or demilitarisation.

Asked if the IRA would disband if there were concessions on policing and demilitarisation, Mr McLoughlin said: "If they give us Patton, we will have something to go back to our party with, but the IRA will not disband this side of a British withdrawal."

The Sinn Féin chairperson welcomed the dumping of pipe bombs and firearms by the Ulster Defence Association in Belfast on Wednesday night.

"But we must remember that these pipe bombs have killed people and can easily be manufactured," he added.