European Summit Off to a Rocky Start

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher held an angry exchange with her Belgian counterpart and was snubbed by the Irish prime minister Friday as an extraordinary, three-way dispute over London’s attempted extradition of a defrocked priest on terrorism charges disrupted the opening of a European Communities summit.

The meeting of 12 Western heads of government, on the Greek island of Rhodes, is meant to review progress toward creating a more united Europe by 1992. But the extradition controversy only appeared to underline the differences between Thatcher’s Britain and much of the rest of the Continent over appropriate political priorities.

Both Thatcher and Belgian Prime Minister Wilfried Martens were visibly agitated after what was described as an “animated” and “angry” hourlong confrontation over Brussels’ refusal last week to extradite Patrick Ryan. Ryan, an ordained Roman Catholic priest who left his religious order in 1974, is accused by Britain of being a quartermaster for the outlawed Irish Republican Army.

Ryan denies any ties to the IRA and says he has never been involved in terrorism. As an acknowledged Irish nationalist, he rejects the right of any British court to try him and has pledged that he will never be brought here alive. He went on a 22-day hunger strike while Belgian authorities pondered his fate.

In the end, those authorities branded Britain’s request as inadequate under Belgian extradition requirements, triggering a controversy that was described here Friday as having brought Anglo-Belgian relations to their lowest ebb in years.

‘Very, Very Angry’

Thatcher, who was characterized by a government spokesman as “very, very angry,” on Friday challenged Martens’ claim that the action was taken on legal rather than political grounds.

“How could an unqualified Cabinet take decisions on legal grounds?” Thatcher was reported by British journalists traveling with her to have snapped.

In an televised interview with the British Broadcasting Corp., she contrasted the Belgian decision with Britain’s extradition to Brussels of English thugs accused in the deaths of 38 people during rioting at the 1985 European Cup soccer championship. Moreover, she described her confidence in Belgian support for the battle against terrorism as “dented.”

Critics here charged that Brussels was afraid of becoming a terrorist target if the government did extradite Ryan. Earlier this week, Thatcher told Parliament, “It is no use governments adopting great declarations and commitments to fight terrorism if they then lack the resolve to put them into practice.”

Even if she was upset with Belgium, her unusual public blast was aimed at least as much at Ireland, where Ryan is now said to be in seclusion.

“Although the government of the Republic of Ireland makes fine-sounding speeches and statements, they do not always seem to be backed up by appropriate deeds,” Thatcher said.

Ryan, who is not wanted in Ireland, was flown to Dublin on a Belgian plane last week and went immediately into a clinic south of the Irish capital to recover from his hunger strike.

But then, four days later, he was allowed to check himself out and to find refuge in an undisclosed Irish monastery. It was a doubly frustrating development for a British government already angry that Ryan had not been arrested on arrival in the country pending a decision on a new extradition request already filed with Dublin.

Under changes in Ireland’s extradition law last year, Atty. Gen. John Murray must satisfy himself that British evidence against Ryan is sufficient to justify sending him here.