THE decommissioning issue is set to dominate tomorrow's potentially fraught meeting of the Anglo Irish Intergovernmental Conference in London. Sources last night, confirmed they were "coming up to the wire" on the question of paramilitary disarmament, as the two, governments seek to agree an opening scenario for the all party talks due to start on June 10th.
The Ulster Unionists, mean while, are pressing for the appointment of Gen John de Chastelain, of Canada, to head a Disarmament and Verification Commission. A document seen by The Irish Times understood to have been written by Mr Ken Maginnis, the Ulster Unionist security spokesman, and circulated to British, ministers last week says the party "must not contemplate embarking on negotiations before the size and membership of the body is decided, and its mission statement and legislation for operation is confirmed and in place".
The Tanaiste, Mr Spring, will press the Northern Secretary, Sir Patrick Mayhew, for detailed proposals on how the political negotiations are to be advanced while the decommissioning issue is considered. And the Irish delegation is certain to resist suggestions that former senator, Mr George Mitchell's role in the talks can be limited to "signing up" the parties to the six principles of non violence, or to overseeing a process of parallel decommissioning.
Dublin believes Mr Mitchell's engagement as an independent chairman of the entire process, or, at least, as chairman of the Strand Two North/South talks is vital to ongoing attempts to have the IRA ceasefire reinstated. And despite Mr John Major's assurances in his Irish Times article last Thursday, Irish anxiety persists that the proposed negotiations could remain a hostage to the resolution of the decommissioning issue on terms acceptable to the unionist parties.
Current British proposals envisage reference of the decommissioning issue to an all party committee, to be appointed at the first plenary session on June 10th, while discussions about the agenda and procedures for the negotiation process continue.
Irish concern has been heightened by indications that pro-union Conservative MPs, have been reassured there will be no movement into substantive negotiations until the all party committee has decided how the decommissioning issue is to be progressed.
Sources last night said the Tanaiste would be seeking to put flesh on Mr Major's statement that there would need to be agreement on how the Mitchell report's recommendations "can be taken forward, without blocking the negotiations". Specifically, the Irish side will seek to establish that the British do not have a timeframe in mind for the start of actual decommissioning.
Sources last night suggested that if Sinn Fein entered the process on such a basis, it could only be for tactical reasons.
With the question of a role for Mr Mitchell also set to dominate tomorrow's meeting, the UUP paper suggests his continuing involvement on the decommissioning issue "would make a great deal of sense and would provide a degree of continuity in terms of the necessary transition" from "assessment" of the issue to "implementation." But the paper acknowledges a doubt as to whether the former senator would accept this limited role.
The original UUP plan for a Disarmament Commission, in January 1995, did envisage a stand alone operation and could come to be seen as a variation of Mr Spring's proposal that decommissioning be dealt with as a fourth strand of the talks.
But the UUP is resisting the idea that this could become an equivalent political strand of the process, subject to the same process of compromise and negotiation as the other three.