No Summit. What Now?

Bateman

BLAIR CANCELS PEACE TRIP

Tony Blair has postponed his visit to Northern Ireland because of continued wrangling over the latest Anglo-Irish peace plan.

Mr Blair and his Irish counterpart Bertie Ahern were expected to unveil proposals to revive the power-sharing government in Belfast.


But Mr Ahern said "insufficient progress" had been made for the meeting, at Hillsborough Castle near Belfast, to go ahead.

Instead, he is flying to London to discuss ways of breaking the deadlock with Mr Blair.

The two prime ministers had hoped to unveil a detailed document of about 20 pages.

It would have outlined what the Northern Ireland parties must do to salvage key goals in the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement.

The agreement was signed exactly five years ago today but has yet to be implemented fully.

It is hoped the new blueprint for peace will persuade the IRA to lay down their arms and call an end to hostilities.

The document sets out London and Dublin's terms for dealing with:

Paramilitary acts of completion - requiring the IRA and loyalist groups to end recruiting, training, intelligence gathering, targeting, weapons importation and an involvement of all forms of violence from riots to gun and bomb attacks.
Demilitarisation - setting targets over two to three years to reduce the number of soldiers in Northern Ireland to 5,000, cutting down the number of Army bases to 14 and getting all the watchtowers in South Armagh down by the end of next year.
The devolution of policing and justice powers - committing the Government during the lifetime of the next Assembly to transfer responsibility for policing and justice to the power sharing executive at Stormont.
Criminal justice reform - outlining more radical changes to the prosecution service and the judiciary.
Policing - with proposals aimed at persuading Sinn Fein to join the Policing Board and endorse the police service of Northern Ireland.
A Bill of Rights - appointing an international figure to lead negotiations.

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Maybe the armed struggle hasn't been abandoned completely, maybe its just waiting for this type of situation to developl. Quite worrying, and all the more so because no-one wants to take any responsibility for it.

Mighty_Mouse

Maybe the armed struggle hasn't been abandoned completely, maybe its just waiting for this type of situation to developl

As regards the IRA. I think the Republican movement has recognised that the armed struggle has been taken as far as it can go.

As regards the UVF, LVf, Red Hand Defenders etc....well they have never really been put under pressure by either members of their own communities,or their ploitical representatives to at least introduce a lasting ceasefire. And whatever they decide to do isn't linked to the political process.

I don't see that changing cause as far as I can understand these organisations have become tangled up in the drug business of northern ireland. At the same time though they continue to murder catholics for no reason.

I truly believe that the IRA has accepted that furthering their agenda politically is the way forward.

I must read more on this when I get a chance. Was there not an effort to intrduce sanctions into the process?

Any further acts of completion by the IRA hinge on reforms in policing being introduced so thats the one to watch.

Éomer of Rohan

I think the incoming Bill of Rights in Northern Ireland is a disastrous idea. I was in Stormont back in 2000 arguing with Bryce Dixon (HR Commissioner) about how undemocratic it is. It gives the judiciary, an unelected and unrepresentative body of upper middle class old men (only 2% women!) the power to strike down legislation that they feel might contravene the Human Rights Bill which would effectively be untouchable - and personally I don't think that an 'establishment' should have any power over the representatives of the people (though as you all know I am not in favour of the present system, I just have to work within its confines for now). It does no good to have an unchanging Bill in a society where change is a regular occurence and on some small point, the case may be made by the political opposition that the bill they are presently opposing is contravening the NIBHR and have it quashed by a friendly judge.

daveirl

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