Sinn Fein Opposes New N. Ireland Peace Plan

Sinn Fein, political wing of the Irish Republican Army, said Saturday it would oppose new proposals aimed at ending decades of political and sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland.

The proposals on new power-sharing arrangements in the province were hailed last week as a breakthrough after months of slow-moving negotiations between Northern Ireland’s political parties.

But Sinn Fein negotiator Martin McGuinness said the document had “gone down very badly” with his party, which rejects British rule and wants union with Ireland.

“We have not accepted the document as a basis for negotiation, and we intend going to the talks to oppose the document,” McGuinness added.

The plan, devised by the British and Irish governments and published Monday, proposes a new Northern Ireland assembly, an intergovernmental council and a north-south ministerial council to oversee island-wide cooperation on economic, trade and other matters.

Leaders of Northern Ireland’s pro-British Protestant and pro-Irish Catholic communities grudgingly accepted the agenda as a basis for talks.

Parties allied to Protestant guerrilla groups threatened to walk out of the peace talks, prompting Britain’s Northern Ireland Secretary Marjorie “Mo” Mowlam to visit jailed guerrillas to persuade them to change their minds.

Sinn Fein’s opposition to the blueprint for peace will come as a blow to the British and Irish governments, which had hailed it as a significant step forward in the search for an end to the violence.