Violence, Ultimatums Imperil Peace in Ulster

A peace initiative for Northern Ireland received a severe setback Sunday after increased violence in the province was followed by unyielding statements by Irish republicans and British Prime Minister John Major.

In London, Major gave the Irish Republican Army a “take it or leave it” ultimatum, referring to the peace proposal that he and Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds signed Dec. 15.

Major warned the IRA and its political arm, Sinn Fein, that they will face international isolation if they reject the proposal to end 25 years of violence in Ulster, as Northern Ireland is also known.

“We are not entering into negotiations,” Major said Sunday, a day after an IRA bomb blitz of stores in the Belfast region caused millions of dollars in damage. “The joint declaration lies on the table.”

In an interview in a Dublin newspaper Sunday, top Sinn Fein official Martin McGuinness condemned the British-Irish peace plan because it fails to commit Britain to a troop withdrawal and gives the Protestant Unionists in Ulster final say on the province’s future.

“I’m afraid the prospects of the declaration, as far as republicans are concerned, to say the least are worthless,” McGuinness said.

He said it will take as long as three weeks before Sinn Fein officially responds to the plan.

Under the peace proposal, the London and Dublin governments will not officially meet with Sinn Fein or the IRA until three months after their acts of violence in Ulster ceased.

McGuinness’ remarks, together with the firebombings and the killing of a British soldier in the province over the weekend, marked a hardening of the republican position.

In Belfast, republican sources said that IRA guerrillas decided to step up attacks on military and civilian targets to build public support for the withdrawal of the 20,000 British troops in Ulster.

In his statement, McGuinness said: “Our position remains what it has been in the past: The British should be out of here in the lifetime of a Parliament--within five years.”

But Major reaffirmed his “rock-solid” support for the Protestant Unionists’ right to decide whether to remain part of the United Kingdom or unite with the Irish Republic.

And David Trimble, a leading Ulster Unionist member of Parliament, said that McGuinness’ remarks confirm that the IRA does not want peace.

He added that the British government should not be “strung along” while the IRA takes its time deciding when to release a formal response to the British-Irish proposals.

“They have got their answer,” Trimble said.