Britain Drops Demand for IRA Weapons

Britain, in a key concession, told IRA guerrillas Saturday that they would not have to hand over their weapons as soon as Northern Ireland peace talks start next week, but would be expected to do so shortly afterward.

However, Britain stood firmly behind its demand that the Irish Republican Army declare a new truce before its political wing, Sinn Fein, is allowed a place at negotiations due to open June 10 to argue the case for an end to British rule in the province.

The announcement means that Sinn Fein could take part in the talks for some time while its IRA backers are armed, something Britain had staunchly rejected.

The concession was announced by Britain’s Northern Ireland secretary, Patrick Mayhew, in an attempt to reassure the IRA that the surrendering of weapons would not hold up negotiation of a lasting settlement to the 25-year conflict.

The move was immediately denounced by leaders of Northern Ireland’s Protestant unionist parties, which want the province to remain British and insist that a hand-over of IRA weapons must be the first issue on the agenda of the talks.

The Rev. Ian Paisley, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, said that what he called the “somersault” was the result of Irish and U.S. government pressure to ensure Sinn Fein takes part in the talks.

Reaction from Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams was cool.

“Sinn Fein is quite prepared to discuss all matters in a positive way with the aim of resolving difficult issues. The place for those discussions is in all-party talks,” he said.

Adams said earlier that the Anglo-Irish preconditions risked turning the peace process into a tragedy.

“There is a danger of them [the British government] turning all of this into a farce,” Adams said. “And, as many of us know, there is a very thin line [before] farce becomes tragedy.”

Adams urged the Irish government to break with Britain in its insistence on an IRA truce.

He said the Irish government, whose constitution lays claim to Northern Ireland, had a “constitutional imperative” to defend the rights of Irish Nationalists in Northern Ireland.

He said Irish Prime Minister John Bruton could not claim to be champion of Irish rights in Northern Ireland when he was “colluding with the British government to deny the rights of those who voted for us.”