Discord Could Put N. Ireland in Limbo

Northern Ireland’s feuding political parties nudged their fragile power-sharing government closer to suspension Thursday after a key Protestant leader brushed off as inadequate the latest overture by the Irish Republican Army to end a long-standing dispute over weapons.

The decades-old saga that has pitted Roman Catholics against Protestants continued to unfold Thursday after the IRA confirmed through a statement that its leaders have signed off on a method for scrapping the group’s sizable cache of arms.

Prominent Protestant politician David Trimble rejected the IRA statement--as he did when it was first circulated Monday by an international disarmament commission. The Ulster Unionist Party leader said the statement failed to contain a timeline for the Catholic militants to begin shedding their arms.

“Hopes that an IRA statement might indicate [disarmament] was going to happen have been disappointed,” Trimble said.

The latest crisis to engulf Northern Ireland was triggered by Trimble when he resigned last month as first minister of the British province over the arms issue. His actions threw into a tailspin the fate of the 1998 Good Friday peace accord, which seeks to end a conflict that has split the people of Northern Ireland between those who want their territory to remain part of Britain and those who want to become part of Ireland.

The province’s power-sharing assembly, the centerpiece of the accord, has until this weekend to resolve the crisis by either returning Trimble to office or electing his replacement. A Thursday deadline for recalling the assembly to a Saturday session passed with no new developments.

Trimble has refused to make a run for his old job unless the IRA begins ditching its weapons. He faced increasing pressure from fellow party members who remain uneasy with the notion of continuing to participate in a government with Sinn Fein, the IRA’s political ally, while the militants continue to hold weapons.

“The reality is this process is at a crossroads,” Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said.

For its part, Sinn Fein is seeking further clarification from the British and Irish governments on a series of proposed reforms that, among other things, would reduce the British military presence in Northern Ireland and facilitate the integration of Catholics into the province’s Protestant-dominated police force.

The Irish and British governments floated the reform proposals last week in a bid to entice the IRA to disarm--an issue that has repeatedly frustrated the full implementation of the Good Friday accord. British authorities estimate that a series of arsenals controlled by the IRA contain 3 tons of the explosive Semtex and more than 3,000 guns, rifles and other weapons.

An announcement Monday by Canadian Gen. John de Chastelain, head of the international disarmament commission, that the IRA had proposed a method of putting its arms beyond use raised hopes of an impending breakthrough, which has yet to materialize.

Consequently, it appears that John Reid, the British government’s secretary for Northern Ireland, will be forced to decide whether to call new elections or indefinitely suspend the power-sharing government. He could also suspend it for one day, which would trigger a six-week period in which to try to end the morass.

Suspending the Northern Ireland Assembly is viewed by some as a less disruptive option than calling new elections. The latter action could further polarize the 108-member body by paving the way for more hard-liners to join the assembly, as happened during elections held earlier this year.

The statement issued by the IRA on Thursday indicated that the group has met eight times with representatives of De Chastelain’s disarmament commission and plans to monitor political developments and continue to meet with the commission.

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Times special correspondent William Graham in Belfast, Northern Ireland, contributed to this report.