Sinn Fein Chief Still Barred From Parliament

Ah, said Gerry Adams as he sipped his tea, the irony of it all. The Sinn Fein leader has his invitation to a historic meeting with Prime Minister Tony Blair at 10 Downing St. next week but was again rebuffed Thursday by the British Parliament to which he was elected.

“Britain, which once ruled the waves, now waives the rules,” he quipped, after House of Commons Speaker Betty Boothroyd refused his request for use of facilities and the Parliament’s library.

In London for a day of tub-thumping for his cause, Adams said he was unsurprised by the official rebuff. He refuses to swear the required oath of loyalty to Britain’s queen as the condition for taking the seat to which he was elected as a representative for Belfast, the Northern Ireland capital, in May.

In a wide-ranging conversation here Thursday, Adams said Sinn Fein, political wing of the outlawed Irish Republican Army, is in democratic politics for keeps. And, he said, there are chances for progress in stalled Northern Ireland peace talks before Christmas.

Adams and his deputy, Martin McGuinness, who also won a seat in Parliament, came to London on Thursday knowing that they would lose their fight with Boothroyd, who reiterated her no oath-no way prohibition in what Adams described as a cordial half-hour exchange.

The decision, Adams contends, violates the democratic principles of the house. He and McGuinness will challenge it in the European Court of Human Rights.

Sinn Fein, which denies any direct link to the IRA, won 16% of the vote in Northern Ireland in May and joined peace talks for the first time in September. Its political opponents say there is no meaningful difference between Sinn Fein and the IRA.

In the opening round of the Belfast talks, eight political parties, including the largest party representing the province’s Protestant majority, laid out their positions.

Minority republicans, nearly all of them Roman Catholic, seek unification of the province with the Irish Republic. Majority unionists, also called loyalists, want Northern Ireland to remain a British province. Three decades of sectarian violence have claimed more than 3,000 lives.

This week, the peace talks chairman, former U.S. Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell, cut the number of representatives for plenary sessions to two leaders with negotiating authority for each party. That effectively reduces the number of people around the table to about 20 from as many as 70 until now.

“I would characterize this as getting down to brass tacks,” Mitchell said in announcing the streamlined forum, which is intended to promote debate.

Adams observed: “Because of the change in format, there could be some useful movement. If there is will among the unionists, it would be possible to settle on an agenda before Christmas.”

Sinn Fein, he said, is focused on issues of constitutional change, demilitarization, including the release of prisoners in jail for terrorist offenses, and what he called “the equality of democratic rights.”

The surrender of weapons by the IRA and by Protestant paramilitary forces is a key stumbling block at the conference. The IRA says it will not surrender its arms until negotiations are concluded--if then.