IRA Trades Truce for Spot at Talks on N. Ireland Peace

To a chorus of relief--and disbelief--in bleeding Northern Ireland, the Irish Republican Army on Saturday declared a cease-fire, effective this morning, that will allow its political arm to participate in peace talks after decades of sectarian violence.

Renouncing a terrorist campaign that has included bombings, the killings of two policemen and the disruption of public services in recent months, the IRA announced that the cease-fire will begin at noon today (4 a.m. Los Angeles time).

In political context, Saturday’s move will shift the onus for further progress toward peace from the IRA and Sinn Fein, the outlawed group’s political wing, to the British and Irish governments, which are sponsoring the peace talks. Pressure will now weigh heavily on skeptical political parties representing the Protestant majority in the divided province.

Analysts note that suspicions and hostilities run so deep between Protestant unionists, who want the province to stay British, and Roman Catholic Irish nationalists that the IRA action will be seen as tactical rather than as a lasting commitment to peace until events prove otherwise.

The announcement restored an IRA cease-fire proclaimed in August 1994. That truce, which failed to win Sinn Fein entry to peace talks, ended without warning in February 1996 with a London truck bomb that killed two people.

A beaming Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein leader, celebrated Saturday’s announcement by waving an Irish newspaper with the banner headline “Another Chance.” Among Protestant politicians, however, incredulity and hostility were rife.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair welcomed the IRA action but cautioned, “There are still many obstacles to overcome.” He said Britain will assess the action “with great care” to ensure it meets demands for a lasting peace commitment from the parties involved in the talks.

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern observed: “People will say, ‘Is it tactical, is it permanent? Will it last, will it change?’ It’s up to us. It’s a challenge for us all.”

In Washington, President Clinton welcomed the IRA announcement and pledged that his administration will cooperate with all of Northern Ireland’s political factions--including Sinn Fein--in the search for a lasting settlement.

“On the basis of this cease-fire, implemented unequivocally, my administration will work with Sinn Fein, as with the other political parties,” Clinton said in a written statement issued by the White House. “The United States will strongly support those who take the risks of principled compromise as they seek a peaceful and prosperous future for themselves and their children.”

Several years ago, Clinton became the first U.S. president to invite Adams to visit the White House, a step that seemed to backfire when the IRA canceled its earlier cease-fire.

As the welcome cease-fire news came to Belfast on a sunny Saturday, it was clear that slippery slopes still remain to be climbed. In both Catholic and Protestant communities, pious wishes for peace are invariably followed by an unspoken coda: “on my terms.”

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Word of the prior cease-fire brought happy crowds to Belfast streets in 1994, but this time the response was muted, an optimism tempered by history.

“I’d like to think this was the start of peace, but I don’t think I’ll see it in my lifetime,” one middle-aged Belfast Catholic told a British reporter.

“Maybe now we can get a bit of peace and relax,” Maureen Kelly, a Catholic shopper, told the Associated Press.

In the Protestant part of the city, reporters encountered anger and contempt. “It’s a joke,” said one Protestant. “Let Gerry Adams ask the families of people who have been murdered by the IRA whether they’ll trust him.”

The IRA action, announced in a telephone communique to Irish national radio and television in Dublin that included a recognized code word, came 17 hours after Adams announced that Sinn Fein had recommended a new cease-fire to the terrorists.

“We have ordered the unequivocal restoration of the cease-fire of August 1994. All IRA units have been instructed accordingly,” the IRA said in a statement that also reasserted the movement’s political goals.

“The IRA is committed to ending British rule in Ireland. It is the root cause of division and conflict in our country. We want a permanent peace and, therefore, we are prepared to enhance the search for a democratic peace settlement through real and inclusive political negotiations,” the organization’s statement said.

Blair, who came to power in May determined to break the impasse over Northern Ireland, said last month that Sinn Fein could participate in all-party talks if a cease-fire is in place for six weeks before the talks resume.

Saturday’s announcement, then, was timed to meet a plan for a mid-September session to be mediated by George J. Mitchell, a former Democratic senator from Maine. The talks have been underway for more than a year but, in Sinn Fein’s absence, have accomplished little.

Adams has long said that Sinn Fein has no objection to Britain and Ireland’s demands that it formally accept the “Mitchell Principles,” a set of nonviolent, democratic tenets all other parties endorse.

Blair has repeatedly warned that the “peace train” would be leaving with or without the presence of Sinn Fein. Now, suddenly, the pressure is on the loyalist Protestant groups participating in the talks.

Many of them have vowed never to negotiate with Sinn Fein unless there is first a surrender of arms. The IRA says its arsenal must remain intact until there is a political settlement.

Accepting a Mitchell proposal, Britain and Ireland say that arms decommissioning can be discussed on a parallel track while the main talks focus on the search for a political settlement in Northern Ireland.

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Many of the Protestant parties say Blair has gone too far to accommodate the IRA. Some will resist participating in talks with Sinn Fein.

“No unionist of any standing . . . will be sitting down along with them,” Peter Robinson of the hard-line Democratic Unionist Party told the BBC on Saturday.

Adams said the key to the IRA truce was British assurances that the Anglo-Irish guardians of the talks would not allow the issue of surrendering IRA arms to torpedo discussion of a political settlement. On Monday, David Trimble, leader of the mainstream pro-British Ulster Unionist Party, is scheduled to hold talks with Blair in London. Trimble says that British and Irish plans to achieve IRA disarmament are too vague.

Although they have become increasingly active in recent months of rising tension and violence, Protestant terrorists have not formally abandoned a cease-fire of their own announced in October 1994.

Parties to the negotiations will vote Wednesday on the proposal that the guerrillas surrender weapons as the talks progress rather than before the negotiations begin.

To assure Sinn Fein that the talks would not become hostage to loyalist filibuster, Britain says they should be concluded by May 1998 and submitted to a referendum in the province, where there is a 60% Protestant majority.

Blair has also promised to review the cases of hundreds of IRA prisoners in British jails for security offenses linked to a conflict that has claimed more than 3,000 lives.

Times staff writer Norman Kempster in Washington, Janet Stobart of The Times’ London Bureau and special correspondent Paul Connolly in Belfast contributed to this report.