Hard-liners' gains leave N.Irish peace plan on hold ( 2003-11-29 09:07) (Agencies)
British and Irish ministers begin the arduous
search for a way to save the Northern Ireland peace process on Saturday, after
election triumphs for hard-liners shattered hopes of a speedy return to
power-sharing.
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Ian
Paisley talks to the media at DUP headquarters in Belfast during elections
to the Northern Ireland power sharing assembly, November 28,
2003. [Reuters]
Britain's chief minister in the province, Paul Murphy, was to launch a series
of meetings with local politicians following a poll which sharpened divisions
between unionists from the Protestant majority, who favor continued British
rule, and Catholics who want to join the south in a united Ireland.
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) led by Protestant cleric Ian Paisley, a
diehard opponent of the province's five-year-old peace accord, emerged as the
largest in the mothballed legislature when vote-counting was completed on
Friday.
The Irish Republican Army's (IRA's) political ally Sinn Fein -- whose leaders
Paisley brands "murderers and reprobates" and refuses to speak to -- was the big
winner among Catholic voters.
Northern Ireland's power-sharing assembly, the centerpiece of the 1998 Good
Friday peace agreement, has been suspended since October last year when a shaky
Protestant/Catholic coalition broke down over allegations of IRA spying.
London and Dublin had hoped Wednesday's twice-delayed election would provide
impetus for rival politicians to reach a deal on restoring the assembly and so
safeguard the 1998 deal, which aimed to end three decades of sectarian violence.
But with two parties who plainly cannot work together entitled to the top
posts of first and deputy first minister in any new home rule administration,
the prospects of a swift restoration of power-sharing are bleak.
BACK TO DRAWING BOARD
"There'll be no first minister under me," the 77-year-old Paisley told
Reuters. "We have to go back to the drawing board."
Despite the triumph of the anti-agreement DUP over the moderate Ulster
Unionist Party (UUP) led by former first minister David Trimble, London and
Dublin insist the "fundamentals (of the Good Friday deal) are not open to
renegotiation."
"In our firm view, the Good Friday Agreement remains the only viable
political framework that is capable of securing the support of both communities
in Northern Ireland," the British and Irish governments said in a statement.
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, buoyed by a result which saw his party eclipse
the moderate Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) as the leading voice for
minority Catholics, was set to meet Murphy on Saturday.
Adams' party took 24 seats in the 108-member assembly, swapping positions
with the SDLP which won 18. On the Protestant side, Paisley's DUP won 30 seats
and the UUP 27.
The result was a serious blow to the credibility of Trimble, whose party has
been the dominant force among the Protestant majority since the foundation of
Northern Ireland in 1921, and prompted immediate speculation he might quit or be
forced out.
"I've every intention of continuing as leader," Trimble, who shared a Nobel
peace prize for his role in negotiating the 1998 accord, told reporters. "I have
demonstrated clearly in the last eight years that there's more than a little
stickability here."
