Defend agreement from unionist vandals: Durkan

The British government must vigorously defend the Good Friday Agreement from the “serial vandalism” of unionist politicians, nationalist SDLP leader Mark Durkan claimed today.

The Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister told a fringe meeting organised by his party at the Labour Party conference in Blackpool that the Government must not dilute or diminish legislation on further police reforms in the face of Ulster Unionist threats to withdraw from the political institutions.

“He told guests including the Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid: “We meet at a dangerous time in the peace process – a time when, having moved so far forward, we now risk falling further back.

“Put simply, our process is in crisis. Nationalists – and all pro-Agreement people – are deeply alarmed at the threats being made by the UUP to the institutions of the Agreement.”

(These include) The threat to freeze the North-South Ministerial Council, the threat to collapse the inclusive (power sharing) Executive. The threat to withdraw from the new policing structures.

“Together, this amounts to nothing less than a threatened demolition derby of the entire Good Friday Agreement.”

Mr Durkan recognised that unionist concerns about republicanism in the wake of the arrests last year of three IRA suspects in Colombia, the uncertainty about the break-in in March at Castlereagh police station and the failure of Sinn Fein to condemn attacks on police recruits were genuine.

However, he criticised them for remaining “strangely silent” on “the even greater threat emanating from loyalism“.

Speaking nine days after the Ulster Unionist Council threatened to withdraw ministers from the Executive next January if the republican movement failed to convince them that the IRA will eventually disband, he claimed UUP leader David Trimble appeared “blind to the terrible consequences” of what would happen.

“So forgive me if I spell out some obvious realities,” the SDLP leader said.

“The reality is that convulsing the institutions punishes the public, not the paramilitaries. The reality is that political vacuum is no answer to political violence and anarchy is no answer to criminality.

“As in any normal society, the rule of law should be upheld through the courts.

“Above all, the reality is that the stop-go nature of politics in recent years has served only to heighten the tensions and deepen the divisions that have fuelled street violence.”

Mr Durkan accused anti-Good Friday Agreement unionists of “peddling a false promise” that they would renegotiate the Agreement.

The SDLP, he insisted “would not have any hand, act or part” in any bid to undo the Agreement, having negotiated it.

Next January’s deadline, he argued, was false because leading Ulster Unionists like anti-Agreement MP Jeffrey Donaldson knew they would not be able to force the IRA to disarm and disband by then.

“In truth, the January deadline is more about ensuring that before the (Assembly) elections the UUP dumps government than that the IRA dumps arms,” he insisted.

The Foyle MLA reminded the Government that the new legislation on policing was crucial and he urged the Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid to honour his government’s commitment to introduce it now rather than next spring in the face of an Assembly election campaign.

He continued: “I must also warn against any dilution or diminution of the legislation in the face of unionist threats of withdrawal.

“To do so would only be to feed the anti-Agreement appetite to undo the Agreement.”

With the Ulster Unionists also threatening to boycott meetings of the North-South Ministerial Council involving Sinn Fein, Mr Durkan said the Government must be “proactive” in its defence of the Agreement.

“Above all, both Governments (British and Irish) need to make clear that whether unionists withdraw from the Executive or not, the changes of the Agreement will continue – in politics and policing.

“Nationalists cannot be asked to accept any diminution or delay in any aspect of its equality agenda.

Mr Durkan however was accused by an Ulster Unionist peer Lord Kilclooney of having a “part-time attitude” to the Agreement. The Ulster Unionist MLA for Strangford said Mr Durkan “had failed in his commitment to the Agreement by wilfully ignoring the lack of republican movement on (arms) decommissioning and disbandment“.

“The UUP fully adhere to the central fundamental tenet of the Good Friday Agreement, namely that power-sharing at a local level must be implemented without the threat of violence,” he said.

“Put simply, that threat has not been removed by one of the biggest players, the Provisional IRA.

“It is disingenuous of him to claim that we have not criticised loyalist violence. We have forcefully condemned it.

“But unlike the SDLP, we are not ambivalent about commitments from republicans which were meant to be fulfilled a long time ago.”