Britain must show peace commitment

THE meeting today in Dublin between Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British Prime Minister Tony Blair is taking place amid heightening tensions over the British Government’s decision to postpone the Northern Assembly elections until the autumn.

It was widely suggested this was done because the British feared Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) would replace David Trimble’s Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) as the largest unionist party. It was thought this would fatally undermine the Good Friday Agreement, which the DUP have opposed from the outset.

Mr Blair has left himself open to the charge of blocking the elections because the people of Northern Ireland were not going to vote as he wished.

With the exception of the UUP, all the other parties were calling for the elections to be held this month. Those parties represent the overwhelming majority of the people but their wishes have apparently been overridden at the behest of Mr Trimble.

Over the weekend, Sinn Féin leaders ridiculed the idea that the Dublin Government should act as an honest broker and maintain a neutral stance in relation to the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.

Martin McGuinness attacked Justice Minister Michael McDowell, whom he accused of talking “total and absolute rubbish”.

The Sinn Féin’s spokesman’s insistence that the Irish Government should be “on the side of Irish citizens in the North”, has the sinister implication that unionists are not Irish citizens.

They are Irish and British citizens. If they choose to profess an allegiance to Britain, this merely emphasises the amount of work we still have to do to convince them their best interests would be in union with the rest of the island.

Unionists are, like all the people of Ireland, entitled to a parity of esteem in the eyes of the Dublin Government.

People were not asked to abandon their aspirations in ratifying the Good Friday Agreement.

Everybody has the right to aspire to a united Ireland, but the overwhelming majority of the people on this island agreed we could only achieve this by persuasion, not coercion.

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams suggested over the weekend that the latest developments have cast the North back to a situation similar to that at the start of the troubles.

This is as gross an exaggeration as the outbursts Ian Paisley regularly produces.

The North has come a long way since 1968, but there is still some way to go to win over the confidence of the nationalist community.

In spite of recent setbacks, there is still room for the two governments to push ahead with arrangements on policing and criminal justice reform.

The necessary legislation could be put in place to set up a criminal justice oversight commission and a judicial appointments commission.

The British should be encouraged to demonstrate their continued commitment to the peace process by pressing ahead with arrangements that can be made at this time.