WITH the Northern peace process in disarray over the British decision to push the issue of an elected body to the top of the agenda, Mr Gerry Adams yesterday accused Mr John Major of acting in bad faith.
He claimed Mr Major had rejected the core of the Mitchell report, scuppered the twin track approach and the February date for all party talks, and produced in their place a new precondition based on a unionist proposal.
Meanwhile, one of the coauthors of the Mitchell report, General John de Chastelain, said the International Body had felt that if the report's six key principles had been agreed by all the parties, this could have led to all party talks.
The Sinn Fein president hinted that his party might have accepted the principles set out in the Mitchell report.
He said: "John Major has rejected the Mitchell report. He has done so because he does not want all party talks and because he feared that Sinn Fein would not reject the principles outlined in the Mitchell report. The content of these principles already coincides to a large degree with Sinn Fein positions which are a matter of public policy."
Mr Adams said the Mitchell report had pointed to a possible avenue into all party talks, and that had not suited Mr Major. Mr Adams believed the purpose of asking parties to agree to the six principles had been "to underscore the commitment of all parties who will participate in negotiations to a democratic outcome and to peaceful and democratic methods of influencing that outcome".
Sinn Fein's position on this was absolutely clear, he said, quoting a public statement by Mr Hume and himself last July which reiterated their "total and absolute commitment to democratic and peaceful methods of resolving political problems" and the "objective of an equitable and lasting agreement that.can command the consent and allegiance of all".
However, the UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, asserted that if the election proposal had not been brought forward, the whole peace process would have "shuddered to a complete halt" in the next few weeks. The election course was the only way there was any prospect of discussions in advance of decommissioning.
Mr Adams, who is to deliver the annual Bloody Sunday lecture in Derry tonight, will travel to the US next week and is expected to seek meetings with US administration officials to discuss the latest developments.
The DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, criticised "the absolute effrontery and cheek of Dick Spring to say this proposal [for elections] came from one side of the community"; Dublin "must not be allowed to exercise a veto on democracy in Northern Ireland".
General de Chastelain, in a BBC Radio Ulster interview, denied he was disappointed that Mr Major's move had overshadowed the Mitchell report. He and his colleagues had acted as advisers and what the governments decided to do was entirely up to them.
He added: "We have established six principles which, I think you could say, are the key to the report, to overcome the impasse of lack of confidence and trust in bringing people to the table with or without weapons.
"And our feeling was that if the six principles were agreed to by all of the parties this would go a long way to doing away with some of the mistrust and could indeed lead to all party talks."
Mr Hume and Mr Adams are expected to have discussions shortly on a joint approach to the crisis facing them in the peace process, writes Maol Muire Tynan.
The Sinn Fein ardchomhairle will also meet soon to review the party's situation in the wake of Mr Major's declaration that he intends to move swiftly on elections for a Northern assembly.