homerhop

The North's peace process was back in crisis tonight after David Trimble’s Ulster Unionists hit out at General John de Chastelain’s disarmament report.

Just hours after the IRA decommissioned more weapons and explosives than ever before, Mr Trimble said the process had lacked the transparency he had expected.

As Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British Prime Minister Tony Blair waited at Hillsborough Castle, Mr Trimble said he was putting the process on hold.

It is a huge set back for Dublin and London who believed they were just minutes away from of a massive political breakthrough.

Outside his party HQ tonight, Mr Trimble declared: “I am sorry to have to say that in view of the failure of the IICD (Independent International Commission on Decommissioning) to create the necessary confidence … as a result of what the IICD has done we probably have less confidence in the process that we had an hour ago.”

He added: “We are in effect putting the sequence on hold.”

Earlier Downing Street announced that new elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly would take place on November 26 – but the carefully laid out plan which would see Mr Ahern and Mr Blair at Hillsborough to endorse a huge new Anglo-Irish initiative crashed because of Unionist fury over General de Chastelain’s lack of detail after witnessing another IRA act of disarmament.

Even though he confirmed the quantities were larger than ever before with light, medium and heavy ordinance put beyond use in accordance with government schemes and regulations, the General said he was not prepared to go into specifics.

He said automatic weapons, including machine guns, as well as explosives and explosives materials, had been decommissioned.

At one stage, one of his assistants, the American Andrew Sens declared: “What we saw put beyond use this morning could have caused death and destruction on a huge scale if it had been used.”

But that assurance and General de Chastelain’s report fell well short of what Mr Trimble had expected and he has called a special meeting of his party’s ruling council next Wednesday to consider if there is enough on the table to back London and Dublin’s bid to restore the power-sharing executive in Belfast.

Even some of his close aides tonight fear this initiative has backfired spectacularly.

Party sources reported “serious disquiet” in the Assembly team, with many members questioning what their leadership knew about the deal.

General de Chastelain renewed contact with the IRA in April after they broke off a year ago, and before being driven off with Brigadier Sens across the border to a secret arms hideout, had been involved in an intense talks process with Brian Keenan, the IRA go-between.

Both men spent several hours watching the armaments put beyond use and by the time they reached Hillsborough to report to Mr Ahern and Mr Blair had fallen behind the planned schedule.




To me these shits dont want to see peace in Ireland.This is the third time the republican movement has made substancial efforts, and every time the unionists say it is not good enough.
How many arms dumps have they closed up, NOT ONE.
They have fought tooth and nail to prevent reforms to "their police" force so both communities can have trust in them.
Every oppertunity they can they block the assembly elections to prevent power sharing.
Right now I would not be surprised if the hardcore republicans said fuck you lot we have made the effort and you have thrown it back every time, lets go back to the way it has been for the last 30 years.

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its evolution baby