Sinn Fein told to stick to the rules

Republicans must play by the same rules as their political rivals, a former nationalist minister told Sinn Fein today.

In a speech also challenging the Rev Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists to reveal any alternative they had to the Good Friday Agreement, SDLP deputy leader Brid Rodgers called on the IRA and loyalist paramilitaries to abandon violence for good.

The former Stormont Agriculture Minister told a conference on the peace process in Barcelona: “We often hear from republicans about the legitimacy of their electoral mandate and this is something I fully respect.

“But as I heard it eloquently put last week that mandates only entitles Sinn Fein to get on the pitch. Once they are on the pitch, they have to play by the same rules as the rest of us.

“We all want to see the end of violence for good – particularly those of us who have always opposed its use.

“The clear will of the people of Ireland, nationalists and unionists, overwhelmingly expressed in the referendum of 1998 is that all paramilitary organisations – republican and loyalist – should disappear for good.

“This includes the IRA, which should all disappear not in response to the negative demands of unionism or the British government but in response to the clarion call of the people of Ireland.

“When Sinn Fein signed up to the Good Friday Agreement, they committed themselves, like everyone else, to doing all in their power to make all the provisions and arrangements of the Agreement work.

“Given the principle of inclusion so central to the Agreement, Sinn Fein rightly state that their right to take part in the institutions – the executive, North South Ministerial Council etc – cannot be withheld by David Trimble or the British government.

“Yet when it came to signing up to participate in the Policing Board created under the terms of the Agreement, Sinn Fein withheld their own right and responsibility to take part in that inclusive arrangement.

“Where is the consistency? Sinn Fein demand inclusion in one case and practice self-exclusion in another.”

Mrs Rodgers challenged recent claims by the DUP they could renegotiate the Good Friday Agreement, claiming they had no credible alternative.

She argued: “The fact is anti-Agreement unionists know their current posturing to be as untenable as I do.

“They have no realistic, achievable alternative to the Good Friday Agreement and this is underlined by the fact that they have failed abysmally to articulate what their alternative actually is.”

The Upper Bann MLA insisted the Agreement was “not up for sale” nor were its principles and values up for renegotiation.

She told delegates, who included Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble, that pro-Agreement unionists also needed to tell their community the 1998 accord benefited them as much as nationalists.

“Too often the Ulster Unionist Party has failed to embrace the Agreement in ways that demonstrate to their electorate that there are gains in it for them,” she observed.

“If unionists constantly perceive the process to be give and give rather than give and take, it is hardly surprising, they baulk at it.”

Mrs Rodgers criticised the UUP’s “now you see it, now you don’t” approach to the devolved institutions, claiming it had sapped nationalist confidence.

And with the Progressive Unionist Party withdrawing from talks and the Ulster Volunteer Force and Red Hand Commando suspending contact with the decommissioning body, she insisted loyalists should not walk away.

“Instead of calling off their contact with the decommissioning body, loyalists should call off their campaign of intimidation and assassination against innocent Catholics,” she said.

Mrs Rodgers acknowledged the “exclusive approach” adopted by the British and Irish Governments in talks to overcome difficulties in the peace process had undermined the confidence of some participants.

However, she insisted the interests of the loyalist community would not be served by their politicians boycotting talks.

The SDLP deputy leader added: “It is time for the parties to get real, get round the table and get on with restoring the Agreement.

“This objective requires confidence that the power sharing institutions of the Agreement will never again be arbitrarily suspended in an effort to prop up or appease any political party.

“It requires confidence that the future of our country will be free from the scourge of paramilitarism and sectarian violence.

“It needs certainty that all parties are committed to the new beginning in policing, demonstrated through full participation in the Policing Board and underlined by a determination to secure the devolution of policing and justice powers away from London to the restored Northern Ireland Executive.

“It needs commitment from all parties to the full implementation of the whole Agreement, not least of all those all-Ireland and cross-border arrangements that had not yet been fully developed before suspension.”