British Prime Minister Tony Blair, right, with Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern
Photo: AP
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Tony Blair Goes for a Place in History
// Neither war nor the IRA
British Prime Minister Tony Blair declared the problems in Northern Ireland over yesterday. This announcement was based on a report by an independent monitoring commission that tracked conditions in Ulster. According to the report, the Irish Republican Army has disarmed and given up terrorist activity. Peace in Northern Ireland is to be the final, triumphant accord in Blair's political career, which is otherwise most notable for his support of the war in Iraq. He was speaking at his resident at 10 Downing St.
“The IRA's campaign is over," Blair stated. "The IRA has done what we asked it to do and, while issues like policing remain to be resolved, the door is now open to a final settlement.” Practically simultaneously, Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern declared in Dublin that it was “positive and clear-cut” that the IRA had no more intentions of renewing an armed struggle. Both Blair and Ahern are plagued with scandals right now and are preparing to leave office.
The Independent Monitoring Commission was jointly founded by London and Dublin in January 2004. Its four members come from Great Britain, Ireland, Ulster and the United States. This report, the source of the jubilation, is the commission's twelfth. It states that the IRA has undergone fundamental changes. The organization declared a ceasefire in the summer of 2005 and, the report states, it has lived up to its word. Most of the IRA's key units have been dissolved and membership in other has dwindled. The observers are confident that it no longer plans further terrorist activity it provides financial backing to criminal groups in Ulster. The report also notes that individual IRA members have refused submit to the organization's decision and continue to commit robberies and engage in smuggling. They are condemned by the IRA itself.
Northern Irish politicians of all views agree with the report. Ian Paisley, implacable leader of the Protestant Democratic Unionist Party acknowledged that the IRA “is progressively abandoning its terrorist structures.” Catholic politicians, such as Jerry Adams of the IRA-linked Sinn Fein Party, were openly delighted. This report is important to the politicians because decisive negotiations on the status of Ulster will be held in Scotland next week. North Ireland has been ruled directly from London since negotiations on IRA disarmament collapsed in 2000 and the Northern Irish Assembly, which had existed only two years, was dissolved.
The prime ministers of Great Britain and Ireland and the leaders of all Northern Irish parties are to gather in the Scottish city St. Andrews to work out the return of Ulster to local rule. The most difficult part of that process will be convincing opposing Northern Irish politicians to share power. Paisley has already presented a long list of demands of the Catholics, among them the expansion of the power of British police and that Sinn Fein be declared the political arm of the IRA. He is also charging the IRA with continuing criminal connections. Sinn Fein leader Adams has responded that his party and the IRA have made huge efforts already to achieve peace and will not submit to humiliating demands.
To encourage the North Irish to be more agreeable, London and Dublin have said that, if an agreement is not reached by November 24, the negotiations will be broken off for an indefinite period. That could mean several more years of rule by London in North Ireland, especially since there will be elections in the United Kingdom and Ireland next year and North Ireland will go on the back burner for the duration of them.
Mikhail Zygar
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 06, 2006
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