Britain, Ireland give N. Ireland ultimatum - by SHAWN POGATCHNIK
BELFAST, Northern Ireland - The prime ministers of Britain and Ireland returned to Belfast on Thursday to deliver an ultimatum to Northern Ireland‘s divided Protestant and Catholic parties: Revive power-sharing by a November deadline — or lose the governments‘ backing for the project.
Tony Blair and Irish counterpart Bertie Ahern arrived together at Stormont Parliamentary Building for talks with parties that, for 3 1/2 years, have failed to restore the Catholic-Protestant administration at the heart of Northern Ireland‘s Good Friday peace accord of 1998. They planned to meet separate delegations from the dominant extremes of opinion: Ian Paisley‘s Democratic Unionist Party, which represents most Protestants, and Gerry Adams‘ Sinn Fein, the Irish Republican Army -linked party that represents most Catholics. Paisley has insisted he will not share a Cabinet table with Sinn Fein until the IRA disbands and Sinn Fein drops its decades-old opposition to Northern Ireland‘s police force.
The complex Good Friday pact envisioned power-sharing as the best way to promote reconciliation between the province‘s British Protestant majority and Irish Catholic minority. But while paramilitary cease-fires have largely held for the past decade, political compromise has proved impossible to sustain.
No comments:
Post a Comment