Governments must push process forward
By Marcas Mac Ruairí
| |
Unionist intransigence cannot be allowed to condemn the
people of Ireland to a future of inequality, division
and conflict
|
THE urgency of movement in the peace process was
finally highlighted in the media over the Christmas
period by the death of loyalist killer Billy Wright in
Long Kesh and the subsequent attacks on nationalists
resulting in the murders of Seamus Devlin and Eddie
Treanor.
The deaths brought a violent end to a year which had
witnessed a steady rise in LVF murder attacks on
members of the nationalist community, a trend which
painfully exposes the inaccuracies of media reports
suggesting loyalist attacks are retaliatory. Indeed,
even the LVF itself admitted the Dungannon murder had
been planned up to a year earlier.
Media commentary on the execution of Wright focused on
how the shooting would make life difficult for the
political representatives of the loyalist
paramilitiaries. We were told how we were staring into
the `abyss.' That loyalists might end their ceasefire
and launch a campaign of violence against the
nationalist community of a ferocity not witnessed
before.
But signs that the loyalist parties were becoming
disillusioned with the talks process were evident well
before Christmas and before Billy Wright's demise. The
week before Christmas, Billy Hutchinson was threatening
that his party would leave the talks.
Unionists have argued that the peace process is biased
in favour of nationalists and that republicans have
benefited from a serious of concessions from Tony
Blair's Labour government.
d while the Unionist Party refused to enter
purposeful negotiations during the Autumn, a vacuum was
created only to be filled by the death of nationalists
at the hands of the sectarian death squads.
Trimble, Maginnis, and the loyalists focused on
imagined concessions to republicans. But what are these
concessions? If basic human rights have been conceded
in the prisons, loyalists have benefited from them
also. And they should never have been denied in the
first place anyway.
The ridiculousness of the loyalist anger over not being
informed in advance of the release of republican
prisoners from Port Laoise could be compared to an
expectation that the British government might consult
Sinn Féin before releasing loyalist prisoners. The
contradictions are all the more obvious - and farcical
- when it is remembered that it is republicans who have
been most vociferous in the demand for all political
prisoners to be released.
Outside the prisons, the RUC continues to harass
nationalist youths; hoods and petty criminals continue
to have a free hand to rob, wreck and ruin nationalist
areas with an apparent sanction from the RUC; the
British army continues with its fortification and
strengthening of military posts along the border.
State support for Irish culture remains well below that
provided for Welsh and Scottish culture;.and in
employment there remains the stark fact that
nationalists are still twice as likely to be
unemployed.
The list can go on, but one thing must be made clear.
Questions of justice and equality are not negotiable
and must be dealt with from outside the peace process.
While the nationalist community continues to suffer
from the effects of decades of discrimination, it, and
not the unionist community, suffered a concerted murder
campaign in 1997.
There are a number of foundation stones on which peace
will be established, one of which is truth and honesty.
But, with the complicity of the media, the public has
been bombarded with nonsense about loyalist
retaliation, concessions to republicans and the need
for nationalists to offer confidence building measures.
They may not acknowledge it ever happened, but the
Unionist Party and David Trimble know that in five
decades of rule from Stormont they structured a state
of institutionalised inequality. Twenty seven years of
direct rule by English Ministers has never
comprehensively addressed this. It is therefore the
nationalists which should be asking for confidence
building measures.
It has been said that unionism is actually afraid of
equality, afraid of an end to old certainities.
Equality would stand in contradiction to everything it
has ever stood for. But a stronger and confident Irish
nationalism is now demanding equality, it is not a
negotiating counter. If Unionists find the confidence
in themselves, they will discover that standing with
their fellow Irish people as opposed to against them
will serve their own social, cultural and economic
benefit to the better.
Coming as at does after a litany of stalling tactics
deployed by the Unionists since the IRA announced its
ceasfire of August 1994, the only undestanding that can
be taken from what is being said by them now is that it
is a further attempt at creating the conditions to
prevent progress. Unionism, it would appear, does not
have the self-confidence to meet nationalists as
equals.
No one ever believed that the peace process was going
to be easy, and fraught with the difficulties it has,
it may teeter at the `abyss' for some time to come.
But Unionist intransigence cannot be allowed to condemn
the people of Ireland to a future of inequality,
division and conflict. There are new political
realities to be addressed - Unionists must realise that
Stormont rule will never return and that the days of
inequality are numbered.
It is only through real and tangible progress with a
sustained momentum that the peace process can be kept
alive. That requires urgent action from the two
governments, but particularly from the British. They
can do what they have always done - play the Orange
card and turn their back on equality and justice.
Or they can face down Unionist intransigence and push
the process forward. It is a stark and historic choice.
As the talks reconvene next Monday, the governments
should take the opportunity to get down to business
with an open agenda. It is now time for fundamental
constitutional change.
The `abyss' which commentators are so partial to
referring to has been created by British involvement in
Irish affairs. And the onus is now on Tony Blair to
ensure that this opportunity for a lasting peace in
Ireland is not squandered.
Stagnation will lead inexorably back down the road of
conflict. Unionism cannot be allowed to veto the
negotiations, and if its leaders prove incapable of
rising to the challenge presented by the peace process,
the two governments, and in particular the British
government, must take the initiative and move to
introduce measures without them. History demands it.
cap
Up to them - the British government must overcome
Unionist opposition to change
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