SIR Patrick Mayhew told the parties on October 30th that the total and verifiable disarmament of all paramilitary organisations continued to be a principal objective.
The Northern Secretary said no government can tolerate the existence within its jurisdiction of illegal arms which could be used to attack democratic institutions".
He said the retention of such arms by terrorist organisations associated with parties mandated to participate in the negotiations was "inimical to the confidence and trust" necessary if they were to proceed to a successful conclusion.
A start to decommissioning "would demonstrate a practical commitment to exclusively peaceful methods, so helping to build the necessary trust and confidence".
However, Sir Patrick continued: "As the International Body noted: `Everyone with whom we spoke agrees in principle with the need to decommission. There are differences on the timing. . . but they should not obscure the nearly universal support which exists for the total and verifiable disarmament of all paramilitary organisations'."
Sir Patrick said the British government's position was based on the Mitchell Report and therefore "decommissioning should receive a high priority in all party negotiations".
At the same time, he also accepted "that decommissioning is one of a number of important issues on which progress needs to be made". Quoting paragraph 51 of the report, he added: "Success in the peace process cannot be achieved solely by reference to the decommissioning of arms."
It was for these reasons that the British government had endorsed "the compromise approach to decommissioning" described in Mitchell, "which envisages some decommissioning taking place during the process of negotiations".
Sir Patrick then quoted Mitchell's key paragraph 35, which says such an approach: "... offers the parties an opportunity to use the process of decommissioning to build confidence one step at a time during negotiations. As progress is made on political issues, even modest mutual steps on decommissioning could help create the atmosphere needed for further steps."