Stormont talks must be fully inclusive, says loyalist

Loyalists will only play a part in talks to resolve the problems in the Northern Ireland peace process if they are fully inclusive, Progressive Unionist leader David Ervine warned today.

His party would not be involved in a process which shut it out of some discussions, he said.

His warning came as Northern Ireland’s politicians were preparing for a fresh round of discussions at Stormont today aimed at restoring devolution.

Mr Ervine, MLA for East Belfast, whose party has two Assembly members and is linked to the Ulster Volunteer Force, said: “No-one should ask me or my colleagues to sign up to something we have had less than 100% involvement in.

“We are not interested unless we are involved in all of this process from the embryonic stage to the end.

“We need to return to the collective approach that existed in the run-up to the Belfast Agreement, and I hope lessons have been learned by the governments about the management of this process.

“Taking issues behind closed doors does not create the sense of collective ownership of this process which will resolve these difficulties.”

Another loyalist group, which is politically linked to the Ulster Defence Association, warned last night the talks were doomed to fail if the community it represented was not included.

The Ulster Political Research Group, which said working class Protestants had been ignored to the point of irrelevance, demanded immediate Assembly elections.

“We are in support of a negotiated political settlement to effectively deal with the inequalities that exist within the loyalist community,” it said.

“If politicians are serious about creating a real peace then they must remove the threat of Irish terrorism.”

Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy and Foreign Minister Brian Cowen were due to chair today's talks, in the Member’s Dining Room of Stormont's Parliament Buildings, and featuring teams of two negotiators and a note-taker from each party.

But as the negotiators prepared for the discussions, a hard-hitting Sinn Fein document leaked to PA News showed their negotiators will be extremely critical of the British government and unionists.

The paper also disclosed that Sinn Fein will demand that the British government must guarantee that it would never suspend the North’s political institutions again.

It also wanted guarantees that devolved ministers would be given the automatic right to attend North-South Ministerial Council meetings, and that the government would honour a promise last year of amnesty for terror suspects who have been on the run.

Devolution was suspended in Northern Ireland last month after allegations that the IRA was running spy ring at the government offices at Stormont.

The Sinn Fein internal briefing paper, which has been read only by the party’s negotiating team, warned that IRA attempts to bolster the peace process were being undermined .

It said: “The IRA has, on a number of occasions, acted unilaterally to save both the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement from collapse.

“The current climate of unionist paramilitary activity, the actions of the securocrats and the approach of both the British government and the Ulster Unionist Party, has made this much more difficult.”

The 2,500 word document accused the British government of reneging on promises made in the Good Friday Agreement on police reform, security normalisation, human rights and equality issues.

Today’s talks will involve the Ulster Unionists, the nationalist SDLP, Sinn Fein, the Progressive Unionists and two cross-community parties, the Alliance and the Women’s Coalition. Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionist Party is boycotting them because they focus on implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.