|
||||||||
  |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Two N. Ireland ministers quit
BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- Northern Ireland's power-sharing executive is on the verge of collapse after hardliner the Rev. Ian Paisley's two Democratic Unionist ministers resigned. The pressure mounted on UK Prime Minister Tony Blair's government to either suspend the devolved institution or call fresh elections as DUP ministers Peter Robinson and Nigel Dodds confirmed they had handed in letters of resignation to the Speaker of the Assembly. Paisley announced: "Today our ministers resigned to bring about an end to this farce of a process and to force the government to commence elections as soon as possible." The ministers resigned over Sinn Fein's alleged involvement in an IRA spy operation in the Northern Ireland Office. The affair -- which Northern Ireland First Minister David Trimble has said is "10 times worse than Watergate" -- had threatened to bring down the power-sharing government and wreck the Good Friday peace agreement. Blair is due to meet Trimble at his Downing Street office in London on Tuesday afternoon. On hearing the news of the resignations he said: "This is a very serious situation, there's no doubting it at all and the tragedy is I believe that the vast majority of people recognise that the Good Friday Agreement, the peace process, offers the best chance of a sensible future if it can be made to work. "But it can only be made to work on the basis that everyone accepts the full principles of that agreement and that is equality of justice on the one side and an end to any form of violence and terrorism on the other. "Now we are going to discuss with the parties the best way through this and I remain absolutely determined to make sure that there is a way through it so that the people of Northern Ireland are given the future they need." In talks with Trimble, Blair was certain to come under fierce pressure to eject Sinn Fein -- the republican party with links to the IRA -- from the executive. CNN's Nic Robertson says the affair is one of the most significant incidents in Northern Ireland politics since the 1998 Good Friday agreement that set up power-sharing between republicans -- overwhelmingly Catholic -- and mainly Protestant pro-British unionists. Trimble is expected to warn Blair he has until Thursday to order Sinn Fein out of the Stormont administration. Blair is due to meet Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams later in the week. Sinn Fein accuse unionists of precipitating the crisis to undermine their position. Unionists say IRA activities including murders and punishment shootings continue. Meanwhile a former UK government messenger was due in court in Belfast on Tuesday after being charged by detectives probing the suspected IRA spy operation in the Northern Ireland Office. West Belfast man William Mackessy, 44, faces two counts of having documents likely to be of use to terrorists. Mackessy was expected to appear before magistrates in the city after being charged on Monday night. He is the third person charged following the dramatic police raids on Sinn Fein offices at Parliament Buildings and homes in the north and west of the city. Another man arrested by police is still being questioned. Mackessy had been working at the British government's Northern Ireland Office in the grounds of Stormont as a messenger until last year. Sinn Fein's administration chief Denis Donaldson, 52, and a woman, Fiona Farrelly, have both been remanded after appearing at a special court on similar charges on Sunday. The allegations against republicans have dramatically soured relationships between key players in the Northern Ireland peace process. The IRA has already been blamed for the theft of Special Branch files in Belfast last March while three suspected IRA members in Colombia are facing accusations of training FARC guerrillas. Friday's raids came on the same day three men accused of being members of the IRA went on trial in Colombia for allegedly taking part in the training of rebels. (Full story)
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
