Mitchell Upbeat on Progress in N. Ireland Talks

Winding up a 10-week review of the Northern Ireland peace process, U.S. negotiator George J. Mitchell said Monday that Protestant and Roman Catholic political parties are close to ending their deadlock over disarmament and the establishment of a power-sharing government in Belfast.

Mitchell said the two sides are committed to forming an executive body to assume powers from London and to disarming paramilitary groups under the watch of an international commission set up in the April 1998 Good Friday peace agreement.

“I believe that the parties now understand each other’s concerns and requirements far better than before and are committed to resolving the current impasse. I am increasingly confident that a way will be found to do so,” Mitchell said.

Though cautious, his statement expressed a degree of optimism that had not been heard for many months in Belfast, capital of the province.

The peace process has been at a stalemate for more than a year. It all but collapsed in July when the main pro-British party, the Ulster Unionists, rejected appeals by Britain and Ireland to form a government with Sinn Fein, the political ally of the outlawed Irish Republican Army.

Unionists said they would not share power with Sinn Fein until the IRA proved its commitment to peace by beginning to disarm, a policy they called “no guns, no government.” Sinn Fein, accusing the unionists of trying to rewrite the accord, said that disarmament was not a prerequisite to co-government and refused to budge.

Mitchell, who helped negotiate the Good Friday accord, returned in September to try to salvage it. During the last 10 weeks, he conducted the first intensive, face-to-face negotiations between Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble and Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams since the peace process began.

The leaders devised a sequenced plan that still has not been made fully public. But it began Monday with the statement by Mitchell and another by retired Gen. John de Chastelain of Canada, head of the independent commission on disarmament, who called on all paramilitary organizations to appoint their representatives so that the disarming process can be completed by a May deadline.

Mitchell, a former Senate majority leader, asked all the pro-agreement political parties to make public their overall positions today. Sinn Fein is expected to issue a statement denouncing the use of political violence and also the “punishment beatings” against delinquents and petty criminals that have been carried out by IRA toughs.

Sinn Fein’s peace strategy is to be seconded by a statement from the IRA that aims to convince unionists that the paramilitary group is committed to an “unbreakable peace,” according to sources close to the negotiations.

It then falls to Trimble to persuade his party to accept a deal that allows for a devolved government, including Sinn Fein, to be established several weeks before decommissioning begins--in other words, government before guns.

In his statement, Mitchell said both sides had agreed that a government should be set up “at the earliest possible date” and that “decommissioning should occur as quickly as possible.”

Trimble responded that this common view was “the essential first step from which others must flow” but refused to say whether he would put the deal to a vote by the 900-member Ulster Unionist council at a meeting scheduled for Nov. 27. He repeated his long-held position that democratic political parties cannot maintain private armies.

His lieutenants, however, suggested that there was a basis for Mitchell’s optimism.

“We are moving hopefully towards a deal,” said Ken Maginnis of the Ulster Unionists. “David Trimble and the rest of us have sought to put together a package which will allow us to achieve our objectives.”

Adams, of Sinn Fein, also said Mitchell’s assessment indicated “clear evidence of progress.”

In Ankara, Turkey, President Clinton said in a written statement that he was “heartened” by Mitchell’s report.

“I applaud the persistence that the parties have shown through the last 10 weeks of grueling negotiations. Now the parties must move forward to implement the agreement in full and carry out their obligations as spelled out in the Good Friday agreement,” the president said.

While the gains of this latest round of negotiations may seem incremental and fragile, there was one clear accomplishment: a direct relationship between Trimble and Adams.

The entire peace accord was negotiated through Mitchell and other intermediaries, and when it was signed last year, Trimble and Adams still had not held a conversation. Afterward, Trimble still refused to shake hands with Adams, who, he argued, in effect had a gun hidden behind his back.

Mitchell, however, forced the two to sit down together--once even over a Sunday lunch--and deal directly until they understood each other.

“It became clear that unless we knew each other, we weren’t going to speak the same language,” said David Ervine, leader of the Progressive Unionist Party. “What’s happened here is probably the real beginning of the conflict-resolution process. Now we’ve got people speaking the same language.”

Special correspondent William Graham in Belfast contributed to this report.