The Electronic Telegraph 25 April 1995 FRONT PAGE

Sinn Fein deal ends the long deadlock

By Philip Johnston and Richard Savill in Belfast

Both sides fudge arms issue as Ulster peace process is kept alive
Patience that led to a breakthrough
The Agenda
The Negotiators
Michael Ancram: Aristocratic equanimity

AFTER weeks of stalemate in the Northern Ireland peace process, the Government said last night that it was ready to talk to Sinn Fein at ministerial level for the first time since the IRA ceasefire nearly eight months ago. The first meeting could be within days. The Northern Ireland Office, which has had lengthy exchanges with the republicans over an agenda, said it had received assurances that Sinn Fein would discuss the issue of arms in a "serious and constructive manner".

The decision to press ahead with talks at a political level ended a two-month impasse over moves to disarm the paramilitaries. Sinn Fein had been prepared to discuss "decommissioning" weapons, but linked this to "demilitarisation" - republican code for removing the Army from the province. The Government insisted that the weapons must be taken as a separate issue.

Michael Ancram, the Northern Ireland Minister, who will lead the Government side, said it was important that decommissioning was discussed first and separately from other issues. "We now believe that we have a sufficient and firm basis for carrying forward the exploratory dialogue with the involvement of a minister."

No subject will be excluded

However, the Government has agreed that demilitarisation can be raised by Sinn Fein and that no subject will be excluded. The agenda appears to be a compromise worked out amid growing pressure from nationalist politicians and Dublin for progress to be made.

Downing Street said that Sinn Fein had moved "an enormously long way" from its earlier position in which it equated IRA arms with those legally held by the Army and the RUC.

But by agreeing to talks at ministerial level the Government has implicitly recognised Sinn Fein's political mandate, a prize the republicans have long sought.

A Government statement said that dialogue with Sinn Fein would explore the basis on which the party would be admitted to the inclusive political talks process and "to exchange views on how Sinn Fein would be able, over a period, to play the same part as other parties in the public life of Northern Ireland".

Ian Paisley, the leader of the hardline Democratic Unionists, called the announcement "the latest surrender in a long line of surrenders to the IRA".

But the mainstream Ulster Unionists were less hostile

But the mainstream Ulster Unionists were less hostile. Ken Maginnis, their security spokesman, said that if the Government had been assured that Sinn Fein was prepared to talk seriously about permanent decommissioning of weapons "then this is progress".

Conservative MPs at Westminster welcomed the move. Andrew Hunter, the chairman of the party's backbench Northern Ireland committee, said: "There has been strong backbench support for the Government's robust position. The Provisionals have been prevaricating and pontificating too long. It appears that their bluff has been called."

Sinn Fein maintained last night that it had always been prepared to discuss decommissioning. Martin McGuinness, who has led the republican delegation during the earlier stages of the dialogue with officials, said the party had sought involvement in political talks about the future of the province and did not want to be confined to security matters.

John Bruton, the Irish premier, said he was "very pleased" with the development.

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