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Blair in N. Ireland crisis talks
LONDON, England -- UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is to meet the leader of Northern Ireland's main nationalist party in the latest round of talks to salvage the peace process. Blair is set to meet Mark Durkan -- deputy first minister of the Northern Ireland Assembly and leader of the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) -- at Downing Street on Wednesday. Afterwards, Blair is to meet with Republic of Ireland Prime Minister Bertie Ahern. Ringing in Blair's ears will be threats from mainly Protestant parties that they will pull out of the power-sharing executive within the week unless the nationalist Catholic party Sinn Fein is removed from the government. Ulster Unionists on Tuesday threatened to walk out of the Northern Ireland Assembly by early next week unless the UK government proposes a motion to drive Sinn Fein from office. The hardline Democratic Unionist Party, led by the Rev. Ian Paisley, also called on Britain to exclude Sinn Fein from the assembly, giving a deadline of Friday -- and called on Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid to resign. Two DUP ministers resigned from the executive amid a growing row over Sinn Fein's alleged part in a spy ring. The latest crisis was triggered when police raided Sinn Fein offices across Belfast last Friday. Police made several arrests and confiscated documents, which allegedly included details of potential IRA targets, ranging from the top British army general in Northern Ireland to rank-and-file prison officers. Also among papers confiscated were alleged confidential British government notes of its discussions with Sinn Fein's political rivals. Sinn Fein is seen as the political wing of the IRA, an allegation the party denies. Before his meeting with Blair, the SDLP's Durkan appeared sceptical about kicking out Sinn Fein. "The exclusion mechanism that exists is a very serious power for the assembly and assembly members to exercise," he was quoted by the UK Press Association as saying. "It is a power that should only be exercised on the basis of full and clear knowledge of the situation. We do not have that." On Tuesday, an MP with the SDLP, Alban Maginness, called for the IRA to disband. Maginness said the IRA represented the "gravest threat to political stability." "The reality is that Sinn Fein must come to terms with paramilitarism and must come to terms with the continued existence of the IRA," he said. "Stand down the IRA once and for all. If we are going to restore credibility to Sinn Fein, and that's a matter for themselves, and if we're going to restore credibility to the political process and if we're going to create confidence in the political process, then that problem must be faced up to by Sinn Fein." David Trimble, Northern Ireland first minister and Ulster Unionist leader, met with Blair on Tuesday and said he gave Downing Street a deadline of next Monday to move to exclude Sinn Fein "until such time as the IRA has been disbanded." If such a motion is not forthcoming, Trimble said he and his three ministers would leave the 12-member administration. Under the 1998 Good Friday pact, a party can be excluded from power if it is in breach of its commitment to observe "exclusively peaceful and democratic means." 'Difficult to see way through'Reid, who was also at the Downing Street talks, said: "We are committed to try to get a way of proceeding with power-sharing but at the moment it isn't easy to see how we can find a way through. "There are a range of options that are in front of us. It isn't easy to see which would be the best in terms of preserving both the process and the chances of getting power-sharing up and going again." Blair is due to hold talks with Sinn Fein leaders on Thursday.
The government faces two choices: It could either allow unionists to resign, ushering in fresh assembly elections; or it could suspend the political institutions and bring back direct rule from London. The crisis is the worst since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, CNN's Nic Robertson says. Britain has briefly suspended the devolved government in response to crises three times since power was transferred from London to Belfast in December 1999. Each time the move has given breathing space for politicians to resolve the impasse. But Sinn Fein warned Blair against suspending the power-sharing institutions again. Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein's education minister in the Northern Ireland executive, said: "Tony Blair should defend the agreement and he should defend the institutions established under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. He added: "Sinn Fein isn't going to toddle off into the sunset. We are going to be here because the people we represent no longer regard themselves as second-class citizens." Trimble also warned the government against suspending the executive saying it "would not cure" its problems. He told the BBC that bringing forward elections may not cure the problems either "and indeed in some respects it may make it worse." "I would like the government to tackle the cause of the instability and that means brining it home to the republican leadership that 4 1/2 half years after the (Good Friday) agreement was made, it's about time they implemented it," he said. Also on Tuesday, a 44-year-old former government messenger appeared in a Belfast court accused of having information "likely to be of use to terrorists." William Mackessy copied top-security papers on Northern Ireland's most senior army officer, prosecutors told the court. He faces two charges of aiding terrorists while working at the Northern Ireland Office in Belfast. Mackessy is the third person charged following Friday's police raids. Another man arrested by police is still being questioned.
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