The Electronic Telegraph 25 April 1995 FRONT PAGE
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Both sides fudge arms issue as Ulster peace process is kept alive

By Philip Johnston, Political Correspondent, in Belfast

THE announcement last night of the first political talks between Government ministers and Sinn Fein since 1972 came as no surprise. The weeks of posturing over the linkage between disarming the IRA and so-called demilitarisation were never seen in Whitehall or in Belfast as presenting an insurmountable hurdle to the peace process.

But the decision to press ahead and invite Sinn Fein to discussions with Michael Ancram, Northern Ireland Minister, begs a question: What have the republicans given in exchange for access to the political top table?

Since the ceasefire last September, Mr Major has made great play of the need for the IRA to disarm before it could enter substantive political talks with other parties in Northern Ireland. To an extent, this has been a statement of the obvious: Unionist politicians are not about to sit down with Sinn Fein while it retains an armed wing threatening a return to violence if it fails to get what it wants.

The Government also set out certain conditions before Sinn Fein was allowed to reach the base camp of the peace process summit. The IRA was not required to give up any arms before seeing Mr Ancram to continue the exploratory dialogue.

But the IRA was expected to give a commitment to talk seriously about arms as a separate issue from demilitarisation - a phrase Mr Major described as shorthand for "Brits Out".

The question of decommissioning of arms has been fudged

The statement issued by the Northern Ireland Office yesterday does not suggest that the Government has got what it was after and Unionists were last night suggesting that Mr Major had watered down earlier conditions in an effort to keep the peace process alive.

The statement said Sinn Fein "will discuss, in a serious and constructive manner, any issue which the Government wishes to raise, including the decommissioning of arms, with a view to seeking a resolution of this and all relevant issues."

But it added: "Sinn Fein have made clear their wish to raise a number of issues, including those arising from the need for what they term 'demilitarisation'."

So, the issue has been fudged. The republicans can say they have got demilitarisation on the table and the Government can maintain they have an agreement to talk about disarming the IRA.

However, given the confidentiality of the correspondence between the two sides in recent weeks, it is impossible to say who has given ground, if at all.

Until the middle of last week, Government officials were adamant that Sinn Fein had not gone far enough towards breaking the link between decommissioning and demilitarisation. In the first contacts over an agenda for political talks - there has been dialogue at an official level since last December - Sinn Fein envisaged a trade off that ministers regarded as unacceptable. This foresaw agreement to disband IRA units in exchange for the removal of British Army battalions, a "moral equivalence" that could not be conceded by the Government.

Unionists say this is the latest in a long line of concessions

In subsequent weeks, the republican position hardened. Government sources said they had moved away from the issue of linkage to an assertion that Sinn Fein had a political mandate that should be recognised unconditionally.

By last weekend, British ministers were in something of a quandary. Should they continue with a stand that could lead to an impasse or press ahead and risk being accused of giving further concessions to Sinn Fein?

Soundings were taken among ministers belonging to the Cabinet's Northern Ireland committee and a decision taken yesterday to proceed on the basis set out.

Unionists argue that this represents the latest in a long line of concessions to Sinn Fein since the Downing Street Declaration was signed in December 1993. First, the Government resisted pressure to "clarify" the document but then produced a lengthy commentary that broke the log-jam. After the ceasefire last September, the Government demanded that the IRA give a permanent renunciation of violence before Sinn Fein was allowed into talks with Northern Ireland Office civil servants. When the republicans refused to give such an undertaking, a "working assumption" was made that violence was at an end.

Initially, the Government talked about the IRA surrendering weapons. But, mindful of a republican tradition that did not brook handing over its armoury to the British, Mr Major changed this to the more nebulous concept of "decommissioning".

Leading republicans adamant weapons will not be handed over

Ministers say they are happy that by talking to Sinn Fein, IRA disarmament will be facilitated. But leading republicans have been adamant recently that weapons will not be handed over.

Mr Major, who has personally guided the process from Downing Street, has clearly judged that the potential existed for a breakdown in the peace process if the impasse on decommissioning continued. It was also an issue that had to be resolved before an investment conference in Washington next month which will be attended by both Sir Patrick Mayhew, Northern Ireland Secretary, and Gerry Adams, Sinn Fein president.

Mr Major will be criticised by Unionists for failing to obtain any public undertakings from Sinn Fein that the "huge progress" needed on the arms question will be forthcoming.

But Mr Major's strategy so far has been to sustain the momentum through a range of measures on both the political and security side. For vindication, he can point to the gradual return of Northern Ireland to normality. The arms, however, remain in the possession of both sides; prising them away may prove to be a task beyond any negotiations.

Sinn Fein deal ends the long deadlock

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