Trimble expresses concerns about Northern Ireland peace process

LONDON (Reuters) -- Northern Ireland's First Minister David Trimble on Saturday expressed concerns about the fragile peace process that is bidding to put an end to 30 years of conflict.

"We are putting people to the test," he said of the process that has demanded difficult and demanding sacrifices from the Protestants and Catholics who were firmly entrenched on either side of the sectarian divide.

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Peace in Northern Ireland?

Trimble, the province's leading Protestant politician who heads Northern Ireland's home rule government, was speaking to BBC Television less than 24 hours after Britain freed scores of Northern Ireland paramilitaries under the terms of the peace accord.

Irish police also revealed that missiles, machine guns and explosives seized in Croatia were believed to have been destined for dissident Irish republican factions opposed to the peace process.

Trimble described the early release of some of the most notorious killers and bombers in the troubled history of Northern Ireland as "awkward."

"The prisoner releases are a difficult aspect of the situation," he said after the infamous Maze prison was virtually emptied.

One of the 86 men freed was the Irish Republican Army's (IRA) James McArdle, sentenced to 25 years over the devastating 1996 London Docklands bombing.

Three Protestant gunmen, jailed for shooting dead eight people in a Roman Catholic-owned pub in the village of Greysteel on Halloween night in October 1993, were also released.

All qualified for early release because their groups support the 1998 Good Friday peace accord, which introduced the release scheme, and are respecting cease-fires.

Northern Ireland was returned to home rule in June with a power-sharing executive of Protestant Unionists who support continued links with Britain and Irish nationalists who support unity with the Irish republic.

Trimble said it was "reasonable" to be worried about the state of the peace process.

"I do not know for certain that it is all going to work in the way that we want it to. I still have no absolute certainty that all the parties are committed to peaceful means," he said.

The home rule government brought together politicians who had been on either side of the sectarian divide during a bitter and bloody conflict that took 3,600 lives over three decades.

They range from Trimble's Ulster Unionist party to Sinn Fein, the republican political party.

When asked about his relationship with his new home rule colleague, Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness, Trimble said he still did not trust the education minister.

"You do business sometimes with people you don't trust and indeed it is quite important to have a means of doing business with people who you don't trust," he said.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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