Adams set to release Good Friday review agenda

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams was today preparing to release his party’s agenda for the review of the Good Friday Agreement.

The West Belfast MP was due to unveil the proposals at a press conference at Sinn Féin headquarters as nationalists urged the British and Irish governments not to indulge hard line unionists in the review.

Republicans have been fiercely critical of London and Dublin’s handling of the Agreement.

Mr Adams, in particular, has insisted that both governments implement commitments they made in the Agreement five years ago and in last year’s joint declaration on the scaling down of the military presence in Northern Ireland, an amnesty for paramilitaries who have been on the run abroad, equality and human rights, policing and justice.

Sinn Féin has also condemned the setting up of a four-member commission to review paramilitary ceasefires and the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.

The West Belfast MP and his colleagues have argued that the Independent Monitoring Commission should be abolished because it was not envisaged in 1998 in the Good Friday Agreement.

British and Irish ministers are due to jointly chair the review which gets under way on February 3.

At a meeting yesterday in Dublin with the Foreign Minister Brian Cowen, nationalist SDLP leader Mark Durkan said the Government and it’s British counterpart should honour the pledges they had made in the peace process in recent years while the review took place.

Sinn Féin and the SDLP believe the review should not become a renegotiation of the Agreement.

However the reverend Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists are hoping to radically alter the accord through the review.

The DUP, which became Northern Ireland’s largest party in the Assembly Elections last November, hope to secure changes to the way devolved Governments in Northern Ireland are formed, a reduction in the size of the Assembly and less government departments at Stormont.

David Trimble’s Ulster Unionists have argued that the central issue basing Northern Ireland’s parties as they prepare for the review is whether republicans and loyalist para-militaries will abandon their weapons and wind down for good.

Taoiseach Berie Ahern is due to meet DUP leader the reverend Ian Paisley in London tomorrow for the first time since his party became the largest in the Assembly.

The historic face to face encounter is expected to take place at the Irish Embassy in London.