Prime Ministers Try to Salvage N. Ireland Peace

Failing to reach agreement with Northern Ireland’s Protestant and Roman Catholic leaders, the prime ministers of Britain and Ireland on Friday put forward their own plan to set up a regional power-sharing government in two weeks, followed by the start of Irish Republican Army disarmament.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair called the blueprint for salvaging last year’s Good Friday peace accord “the only way forward” and challenged Northern Ireland’s political parties to endorse “the most historic opportunity for peace this land has known for years and years and years.”

But it was by no means certain that they would opt to make history.

Gerry Adams, leader of the IRA’s political wing, Sinn Fein, hailed the prime ministers’ proposal as “the result of hard work and common sense” and appeared to have the backing of his party for the deal.

Ulster Unionist Party chief David Trimble, however, denounced the plan as “fundamentally unfair” and left doubt as to whether he would even try to sell it to his skeptical party members.

Blair seemed to hint that if he did not, Trimble, the Protestant leader, will take the blame for destroying the Good Friday peace agreement, which was approved by 71% of Northern Ireland’s voters last year in a referendum. That accord calls for creation of a Northern Ireland government that includes Protestants and Catholics, an end to violence and disarmament of paramilitary groups.

“We believe that anyone who supports the Good Friday agreement will support this,” Blair told BBC television. “I would like to know which people are not prepared to do this.”

The prime ministers’ proposal calls for the establishment of a Northern Ireland executive on July 15 that would include representatives of Sinn Fein. The British Parliament would then pass a law to hand over power to the new Northern Ireland Cabinet three days later.

The process of disarming the IRA and Protestant paramilitary groups would begin “within weeks,” Blair said, under the direction of an international body on weapons decommissioning. It would be completed by May, as called for in the Good Friday accord.

In the event any of the parties fails to meet its commitments, the new power-sharing government and the whole agreement would be suspended.

Blair and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern produced the political road map two days after passing their “absolute deadline” for an agreement between the parties to end a 14-month impasse in the peace process.

Ahern described the five days of relentless wrangling with the Northern Ireland political parties as “the most difficult negotiations I have ever encountered.”

So difficult, the prime ministers were unable to overcome the distrust between Protestant Unionists and Catholic nationalists generated by a three-decade war over the fate of Northern Ireland that took more than 3,500 lives.

Unionists want the province to remain a part of the United Kingdom, while nationalists want to see it united with the Irish Republic.

There were shifts in positions, most notably by Sinn Fein, during this week’s negotiations. Four days into the talks, the party moved off its long-standing position that it could not speak for the IRA or ensure delivery of any weapons. Instead, Sinn Fein accepted that it “could successfully persuade those with guns” to disarm within the time frame set out by the accord.

Sinn Fein was quick to add that such an effort would only occur if the party received its allotted two posts in the 12-member Cabinet that is supposed to be established--a key point for its grass-roots members, many who see disarmament as surrender.

The Sinn Fein commitment was good enough for the independent Northern Ireland disarmament commission, headed by Canadian Gen. John De Chastelain, which issued a report Thursday saying that the panel was convinced the surrender of weapons could be completed by the May deadline.

In the wake of the De Chastelain report, the Ulster Unionists’ Trimble acknowledged that Sinn Fein “had moved” in the negotiations. Trimble, who has been appointed acting first minister of the new Northern Ireland government, also ceased making his long-standing demand that the IRA begin to give up its guns before he would sit on a Cabinet with Sinn Fein.

Still, Trimble and his party members could not be convinced to support the prime minsters’ proposal.

“We have still not secured any commitment [on disarming] that would be recognized by Unionists,” Trimble said. “We consider that the guarantees are weak.”

He said Sinn Fein had acknowledged that it “could” persuade the IRA to give up its guns, not promised it “will” or “must” do so. “We just asked them to change one word, which would have changed it from aspirational to a commitment,” Trimble said.

Trimble was angry that Friday’s proposal grants what he views as “terrorists” in the IRA the same rights and respect as democratic political parties. He also complained that it would potentially punish all political parties for one group’s action--or inaction--because it would suspend the new government if the IRA failed to give up its guns.

Blair, however, responded that what the proposal did was to offer the same guarantees to both sides, which distrust each other equally.

The proposal leaves Northern Ireland in a state of uncertainty for the next two weeks, which coincide with the start of the Protestants’ annual “marching season,” during which they hold hundreds of fife-and-drum parades to commemorate military battles, many of them against Catholics.

Many of the marches go through or near Catholic neighborhoods and often lead to violent clashes. One of the most contentious marches is to be held Sunday from the Drumcree Church in the town of Portadown. An independent parades commission has denied the Protestants’ petition to march down the Garvaghy Road through a predominantly Catholic neighborhood.