DATE=5/19/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=NORTHERN IRELAND (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-262557
BYLINE=EVANS HAYS
DATELINE=LONDON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Northern Ireland's Protestant leader, David
Trimble, is urging his divided Ulster Unionist Party
to accept a disarmament offer from the Irish
Republican Army. This could revive a disbanded power-
sharing agreement (between Protestants and Catholics)
in the Northern Ireland provincial government.
V-O-A's Evans Hays reports from London.
TEXT: Mr. Trimble faces the difficult task of
convincing skeptical Unionist party members to accept
a disarmament offer from the Irish Republican Army.
Approval of the I-R-A plan is crucial if Britain is to
restore a power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive,
set up under a 1998 peace accord but disbanded earlier
this year.
The party's governing council was to have met Saturday
to vote on the I-R-A offer, but Mr. Trimble postponed
the meeting (for one week), amid fears the I-R-A
disarmament plan would be rejected.
The I-R-A has agreed to store its weapons in secret
bunkers that will be monitored by international
observers. Its earlier failure to make a disarmament
offer led Britain to disband the power-sharing
executive.
Mr. Trimble says the I-R-A has made a good-faith
offer.
/// TRIMBLE ACT ONE ///
Now some people might say to me, how do we know
that the I-R-A will carry out the statements
that it has made, how do we know that they will
in fact put the guns beyond use completely and
verifiably? And the answer to them is, there's
only one way to find out.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Trimble will spend the next several days trying to
clear up misunderstandings about the I-R-A plan.
/// OPT TRIMBLE ACT TWO ///
I think we need to explain matters and I think we need
to meet the confusion out there. And we will do what
we can to have a proper debate so that when we take a
decision, we do so on an informed basis rather than
have people rushed into it. And we need a proper
dialogue on this, rather than to have some of the
material that's been pushed through people's letter
boxes over the course of the last week.
/// END ACT /// /// END OPT ///
Britain's senior minister for Northern Ireland, Peter
Mandelson, says he believes Mr. Trimble will succeed,
once he overcomes what Mr. Mandelson calls "disgusting
lies" being spread by opponents of peace in Northern
Ireland.
/// MANDELSON ACT ///
These are lies, I've already said, that are
worthy of [World War Two-era Nazi propagandist
Joseph] Goebbels himself. These are lies coming
from people who have run out of an argument;
they've run out of an alternative way forward.
If we were to follow them, we would not have
the peace, we would not have the government,
the inclusive government for Northern Ireland.
We would have further instability for a
generation.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Trimble has seven days to make his case before
convening the Ulster Union Council next Saturday, May
27th. (Signed)
NEB/EH/JWH/WTW
19-May-2000 08:55 AM EDT (19-May-2000 1255 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
|
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list
|
|
|
