A rchive Date
[ 20-10-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Britain ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/stanway.html
Blair regime just looks the other way
By PAUL STANWAY -- Edmonton Sun
October 16, 2002
After four years of pretending to get along, Northern Ireland's government has been disbanded and the province has once again shown the world it is incapable of running its own affairs.
At least that's the official line from Britain's Blair government and the explanation destined to become the standard take on this week's events. You are supposed to shrug and mutter something about the absolute stupidity of Northern Ireland's never-ending religious conflict.
But you would be wrong.
The sad thing about this exercise in spreading the blame is that it fails to do justice to the majority in Northern Ireland who have shown they can get along, who want their own elected representatives governing the province and who want to put the violence and religious bigotry behind them.
The truth is that the people of Northern Ireland are to be denied an elected assembly because of the activities of just one of the parties represented there: Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army.
What killed the Northern Ireland Parliament was the discovery that Sinn Fein had been using its privileged position as part of the government to gather personal information on politicians, prison guards, police officers and members of the armed forces. In other words, people the IRA have in the past targeted for assassination.
They also gathered information on public buildings that have been the targets of past IRA bombings. It is quite clear that this information had been gathered for the terrorists in the event that the IRA finds it useful to resume its campaign of violence.
The discovery of the spying operation finally exploded the myth that Sinn Fein and the IRA are separate organizations.
But who believed that anyway?
Certainly not Sinn Fein's supporters or anyone in Northern Ireland. The myth, however, was central to the American-brokered Good Friday peace agreement and to the governments of Britain and the Irish Republic.
It's amazing, really, that the Good Friday agreement lasted this long. Over the years since local democracy in Northern Ireland was re-established, with Sinn Fein as a full partner, it's been clear that the IRA has no intention of either giving up its weapons or its commitment to violence.
It has been caught training terrorists in Colombia, buying new weapons and continuing its campaign of intimidation, drug selling and robbery in Northern Ireland.
The Blair government seems prepared to look the other way as long as the IRA confines its violence and intimidation to Northern Ireland's Catholic community and avoids exploding bombs and killing people in mainland Britain.
Washington was supposed to crack down on IRA fund-raising and arms purchases in the U.S., but about the only concrete action thus far has been the dismantling of an arms-smuggling operation in Florida after it sent hundreds of weapons to Northern Ireland over a period of four years!
There is considerable irony here.
In the midst of the war on terrorism, the U.S., Britain and Ireland have looked the other way while the most successful and deadly terrorist group in Europe continued its activities. Worse, the IRA's political representatives were given legitimacy as part of the Northern Ireland government, without having to do much, if anything, in return!
You might think that when this attempt to appease the IRA finally collapsed under the weight of Sinn Fein's collaboration with the terrorists, the appropriate response would have been to send Sinn Fein packing. Instead, the Blair government has decided all of Northern Ireland's political parties must be punished and the provincial assembly dismissed in disgrace.
In the meantime, Blair and the Irish PM, Bertie Ahern, remain "totally committed" to the Good Friday agreement, Britain's minister responsible for Northern Ireland hopes the suspension of the provincial Parliament is merely "a breathing space," and moderate Protestant politicians hope a new agreement with Sinn Fein can be reached before elections slated for next May.
Sinn Fein's slippery leader, Gerry Adams, knows he's still in control. "One thing that all parties know is that Sinn Fein is the future," he notes with considerable smugness. The problem, he says, is not the IRA. The Good Friday agreement "set the bar too high."
In fact, the bar was barely above ground level, but don't bet on it being lowered in yet another disgraceful attempt at appeasement.
Letters to the editor should be sent to letters@edm.sunpub.com
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