But the party maintains that it can only influence the IRA and will use whatever influence it has to secure decommissioning only once
But the party maintains that it can only “influence” the IRA, and will use whatever influence it has to secure decommissioning only once the Assembly and executive are working. It has made many compromises to get this far, and has played a positive role again in the last few days. He cannot go back on the cast-iron assurances he has given to the Unionist members of the Assembly, and to his own party members. To do so would mean political extinction at the hands of Orange extremists all too ready and willing to wreck negotiations that they have never wanted.Sinn Fein’s role will be pivotal.
Most formidably, the IRA will have to make a gesture on at least the scale of the LVF’s if it is to be admitted to the government of Northern Ireland.David Trimble, First Minister of the shadow executive, has made it quite clear that if this does not take place, there can be no further progress. Mo Mowlam, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and the party leaders who have agreed on those Cabinet seats and cross-border bodies, are to be congratulated.But, welcome as the LVF’s action is, one terrorist decommissioning does not mark the end of a 30-year conflict Many obstacles still lie ahead. Their leadership is crucial if more arms are to be decommissioned, and yesterday they showed that leadership. The agreement makes it clear that without fulfilment of all its clauses, the others fall too. It was this that the politicians recognised yesterday.Most of those politicians have at least a line of communication open to armed groups. Unionists cannot gain a new Stormont Assembly without agreeing to share power, and to set up such cross-border bodies.
Nationalists cannot gain cross-border bodies, linking their fate with that of the Republic, without the agreement of an assembly and executive on which non-nationalists hold a majority. It is this part of the Good Friday agreement which locks Northern Ireland’s parties to each other.None of Northern Ireland’s parties can gain what they want without the others. The handing-in of the guns follows agreement on the shape of Northern Ireland’s government, for so many weeks a frustratingly close compromise. It has handed in only a small quantity of guns and explosive detonators; but its gesture is a powerful one none the less It shows what can be done. No one committed to an unending war, or despairing of peace, would do such a thing.It is also a welcome affirmation of what can be gained from negotiation. But it does constitute a real and potent threat to law and order in the province, responsible for punishment beatings and shootings of Catholics.
