No Decision on Sinn Fein in Peace Talks

After three days of filibuster and legal maneuver, stalled Northern Ireland peace talks adjourned in disarray here Wednesday, with no decision on whether to expel Sinn Fein, political wing of the outlawed Irish Republican Army.

George J. Mitchell, the American chairman of the peace talks, told reporters that he remains optimistic that a peaceful settlement for the divided British province is within reach.

But there was only discord Wednesday, as talks ended for the week without achieving intentions of Britain and Ireland to expel Sinn Fein temporarily because of two slayings last week in Belfast, Northern Ireland’s capital, attributed to the IRA.

Arguing that there was no evidence on which to justify its exclusion, Sinn Fein asked an Irish court to issue an order forbidding it. That proceeding too adjourned without decision Wednesday. Sinn Fein continues arguing its court case this morning, but the talks do not resume until Monday, when they return to Belfast.

British and Irish government sources anticipate the suspension, expected to last about a month if there is no fresh IRA violence, to be announced jointly in London and Dublin before the Belfast round begins.

Marjorie “Mo” Mowlam, the British Cabinet minister who is effectively governor of the 1.5 million people in Northern Ireland, said the two governments would act “as quickly as possible.”

“Nobody ever said it would be easy,” Mitchell told reporters as he left Dublin, “but I am convinced we are going to get past this difficulty.”

Under the “Mitchell principles” established before the multi-party talks began last fall, all participants in the negotiations are pledged to democratic nonviolence and are subject to expulsion if there is violence by armed groups with which they are linked.

Police in Northern Ireland blame the IRA for the killings in Belfast last week of a drug dealer and a Protestant militant. Britain and Ireland accept the police conclusion of IRA involvement.

But Sinn Fein rejects the finding and also insists that it has no direct relation with the IRA, which has waged terror for three decades as prime mover behind sectarian killings that have claimed more than 3,000 lives.

The Sinn Fein assertion of independence from the IRA is not credible to Britain, Ireland, the other talks participants or the United States, which lends powerful support for a settlement to end the violence between majority Protestants and minority Roman Catholics in the British-ruled province.

“There is no case for Sinn Fein to answer,” party leader Gerry Adams told reporters in remarks echoed by the party’s Dublin lawyers, who told a magistrate that no evidence had been produced to merit expulsion of the party, which seeks the end of British rule in Northern Ireland and union of the province with the Irish Republic.

“Sinn Fein is not the IRA. We are not associated in any way with these killings,” Adams said Wednesday.

Last month, Britain and Ireland expelled the Ulster Democratic Party, a small militant group linked to Protestant extremists who killed three Catholics. The party will probably be allowed back to the talks in the next few weeks.

The second-largest party among Catholics in Northern Ireland, Sinn Fein was admitted to the talks after announcement of an IRA cease-fire last summer. Since then, the IRA has let it be known that it is not happy with the pace and direction of the talks.

Protestants seek the return of home rule for Northern Ireland. Catholic parties favor north-south bodies with decision-making authority to strengthen ties between the two parts of the island of Ireland.