fact file – ” “The peace process” “” “

IRA’s decision to put its weapons beyond use to save the peace process in Northern Ireland is an historic moment for a land racked for centuries by civil war. After the cease-fire declared by the IRA in 1994, the decision of the Republican terrorists to “decommission” their weapons (this term is used rather than “handing over” so as not to give the impression that the terrorists have surrendered) is undoubtedly the most important breakthrough in the peace process since 1993. On the road to peace many have died, including the thirteen martyrs of “Bloody Sunday”, on 30 January 1972 when the British army charged a protest demonstration. Bobby Sands, died in prison, after a prolonged hunger strike, on 1st March 1981. The Protestant politicians, both the moderate ones of the Ulster Unionist Party and the fanatical ones of the Democratic Unionist Party, have always used the failure to “decommission” as proof that the IRA’s suspension of violence, after the cease-fire of 1994, was not to be trusted. The Downing Street declaration, signed almost eight years ago in December 1993, by British Prime Minister John Major and Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds, marked the beginning of the peace process: it was the first time that Sinn Fein, the party of the terrorists, obtained the status of political interlocutor and that the British government agreed to negotiate with Gerry Adams. Key mediator between the terrorists and the ministers was John Hume, leader of the SDLP, the party of moderate Catholics. In August 1994 the Republican terrorists declared a cease-fire, immediately followed by that of the Protestant paramilitaries. Indeed it is just the men of the IRA who have more than anyone helped to change Northern Ireland’s history in recent years: they have declared their willingness to suspend violence in exchange for a political presence that may guarantee to the Catholics for the first time the same rights, schools, jobs and political representation as the Protestants. The peace process was also endorsed by the referendum of 22 May 1998 by which the Good Friday agreement was approved by the majority of Catholics and Protestants, both in the North and in the South, in the Irish Republic. So began the slow construction of those political institutions, the “Northern Ireland Assembly” (parliament), and the “Executive” (government), that guarantee that this piece of Ireland may enjoy self-rule, independent of the Parliament in Westminster. As from today the political dialogue and demilitarization, the twin tracks along which the peace process has moved over the last few years, are entering a new phase. The Catholics of Sinn Fein and the Protestants of the Ulster Unionist Party are once again talking to each other in the organs of self-rule. The British army is beginning to dismantle two surveillance towers and two of its own military bases in Ulster, symbolic gestures that send a clear signal to the people of Northern Ireland that the power of Westminster really wants to get out of the province. The decision of the terrorists of the IRA to abandon their arsenals has been welcomed by Archbishop Robin Eames, leader of the Church of Ireland, the Anglican Church that represents a minority of the Protestant population of Northern Ireland. He also strongly urged the Protestant terrorists to follow suit and not to let slip this unique opportunity. “No one who has lived during the long years of terrorism in Northern Ireland can fail to welcome the decision taken by the IRA”, said Eames. “In view of the history of Irish republicanism, this is an historic moment. But the real battle for the hearts and minds of all the communities is the one that is now awaited. I’ve always said that the reaction to ‘decommissioning’ is just as important as the action itself”. Eames has appealed to all sides to build the future together, by seizing this unique opportunity. “As we struggle to leave the past behind us, – concluded the archbishop – this is now the time for the art of government on the part of the politicians, for courage on the part of those have tragic and bitter memories, and for an opening up to the outside world that may in future bring peace and stability to all of us”. S.G.