UUP rejects devolution plan
Members of the UUP’s 110-member executive insisted after a meeting in Belfast that the two governments’ plan for implementing the Good Friday Agreement was not a “satisfactory basis” for political progress in the North.
They singled out for criticism plans for the scaling down of the Army presence in the North, a scheme enabling terror suspects who have been on-the-run since the troubles to return home without being jailed and the devolution of policing and justice powers.
Dublin and London released the plan in May shortly after British Prime Minster Tony Blair pulled its plans for Assembly elections.
As the governments studied his party’s response to the joint declaration, Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble insisted the UUP executive’s resolution “would come as no surprise to either government.
“They will see in this the position which we put to them during the discussions that have taken place since last year.
“They will not find any surprises here. They will find that this reflects what we have been saying to them.”
He also called on three rebel MPs who resigned the party whip over the party’s failure to reject the joint declaration to now resume their place on the UUP benches at Westminster.
In a message to Jeffrey Donaldson, the Reverend Martin Smyth and David Burnside, he said: “They resigned because they wanted to oppose the joint declaration and that joint declaration has been the subject matter of a council decision.
The Ulster Unionists’ rejection of the document came on the eve of a crucial peace process meeting in Rome between Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Mr Blair.
A British Government spokesman insisted, however, they would not be deflected by the vote.
“We will study the outcome of the executive meeting closely,” he responded.
“However the two governments are firmly committed to the joint declaration which they believe provides the basis for political progress.”
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