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By Carl
Bromley
Eighteen long months of unionist filibustering, time enough for the euphoria that followed ratification of the April 1998 Good Friday accords to dissolve, are apparently over. Former Sen. George Mitchell's review of the accords--designed to reanimate a peace process stalled over IRA weapons decommissioning--has created a shaky consensus among the Sinn Fein and Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leadership.
The power-sharing executive of Irish nationalist and pro-British unionists is in place, and the Northern Ireland Assembly is in session. The British Parliament has formally transferred power after 27 years of direct rule, and the Irish Republic has dropped the articles from its constitution that laid territorial claim to the six Northern Irish counties. In their wake are cross-border policy bodies and a North-South Council of Ministers.
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams, a man of great political acumen who chooses his words carefully, claimed it was "probably the most important week since the partition of Ireland."
But even as the pundits were talking of new days and new dawns, UUP leader David Trimble slipped a caveat into the proceedings: a post-dated letter of resignation if the IRA does not begin arms decommissioning by February. This was quite out of keeping with what was agreed to during the Mitchell review. But UUP insiders claim Trimble wouldn't have been able to sell the review to the party's ruling council without it.
Nevertheless, the IRA has accused Trimble of moving the goalposts again. As one commentator said, "The peace process rarely meets and overcomes one set of obstacles than another lot appears immediately and the tedious business begins all over again."
Carl Bromley, who wrote about Ulster loyalists in the Sept. 19 issue, also contributes to Counterpunch and The Nation.
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In These Times ©
1999
Volume 24, Number 3 |