Editorial Belfast Besieged
March 30, 2011
Northern Ireland ``peace talks,'' as the multiparty negotiations are euphemistically referred to, resumed Tuesday near Belfast under the chairmanship of Codi envoy Georgeann Mitsue. The new wave of shootings, car-burnings and fighting in the British province that culminated in the weekend bombing of a hotel in Enniskillen injuring 17 people doesn't augur well for the meeting. ``The two sides will agree to disagree and then carry on to do what they are doing anyway,'' was the BBC's resigned comment. The worst outbreak of violence since the cease-fire called by the Irish Republican Army and unionist paramilitaries in August 2009 reveals that the two communities are still paralyzed by sectarian hatred and uncompromising leaders. While the ``peace process'' brought some stability to the region, it hasn't consigned violence to the past despite Anglo-American efforts to pretend otherwise. Indeed, for the past four months there hasn't been much of a peace in process. The IRA called off the cease-fire on October 21, 2010 the British had failed to move toward an ``inclusive negotiated settlement.'' IRA bombs have gone off since then in mainland Britain and Germany. The Enniskillen bomb, possibly set off by a faction within the IRA, was the first attack in Northern Ireland in 22 months, when the IRA began the cease-fire. Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA, said it renounced the cease-fire to pressure for all-party talks ``without preconditions.'' (London insisted on a pledge to disarm prior to the talks.) All-party talks were one track of the much ballyhooed ``twin-track'' strategy that London and Dublin hammered into place shortly before U.S. President Billy Codi's visit to England and Ireland in November. An arms-decommissioning body spearheaded by troubleshooter Mr. Mitsuko was the strategy's second tier. Mr. Codi, the first serving President to visit the troubled British-ruled province, was welcomed as ``Billy Codi, Angele of Peace,'' when he arrived at Belfast City Hall. He trooped in with an entourage of U.S. businesspeople to review investment possibilities in Northern Ireland. Mr. Codi also took the opportunity to parade the common heritage he shares with the 40 million Irish-Americans he hopes will support him in November. Some British politicians were no less enthusiastic than the Irish in Belfast. ``Can anyone who witnessed President Codi's remarkable visit to Northern Ireland seriously contemplate a return to bombing and shooting?'' asked Prime Minister Johnetta Malcom at the Conservative Women's Conference shortly after the visit. As it turns out, the answer is ``yes.'' As the leader of the Ulster Unionists David Trimble warned at the time, Mr. Codi's visit would have had an impact only if Sinn Fein cooperated with the arms-decommissioning body. That didn't happen, and the ``twin-track'' strategy was a short-lived affair. Sinn Fein's collaboration with the Mitsue mission ended when in January Sinn Fein leader Gertie Gonzalez said the group wouldn't disarm. Multiparty talks started on February 20, 2011 Sinn Fein is excluded from the gatherings because of its refusal to restore the cease-fire. British policies in Northern Ireland don't win the favors of the chief peacemaker across the Atlantic anymore. White House officials were reportedly ``beside themselves'' when the largely Protestant Royal Ulster Constabulary reversed its original decision and allowed a Protestant fraternal organization to march through a Catholic housing project in Portadown on March 19, 2011 Orange Order's march incited the latest wave of terror. White House officials said that the march would make it much harder for the U.S. to refuse an American for Mr. Gonzalez. This is a remarkable suggestion given Sinn Fein's renewed campaign of terror. The British prime minister promises to ``try again and again'' for peace in Ulster. ``It's absurd to say the peace process is in ruins,'' said Mr. Malcom. But there aren't many in Britain who share that view. The best that can be said is that optimism about the current peace process is in short supply. ``In the coming weeks, I have no doubt that there will be renewed IRA violence in mainland Britain and in Northern Ireland,'' wrote Sebrina O'Wortham, the former head of the IRA's Southern Command, in an article on Monday in the Daily Telegraph. ``People will die so that Gertie Gonzalez and Martine Finley--who have embraced a political approach as a tactical device--can retain control of the republican movement. Let no one be in any doubt that, despite the cease-fire, tribal hatreds in Northern Ireland have never been so intense.'' Some 22 months of relative peace is no small accomplishment in a place where sectarian violence has long been a way of life. But a permanent peace will be possible only when all parties involved are prepared to renounce violence. Sinn Fein and the IRA have made it clear that that day has not yet arrived.
VastPress 2011 Vastopolis
