THE polarisation of political attitudes in the North intensified yesterday, with the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, saying his party was implacable in its opposition to elections at this time. The Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, admitted that even after elections, he would still require decommissioning before moving into "serious negotiations".
The Sinn Fein president told reporters that Mr John Major had "binned" the Mitchell report and had taken the whole process "off at a tangent". He said the Prime Minister's action had been a gross discourtesy to those he had commissioned to produce the report and had been "most unhelpful" to the entire process.
Mr Adams would not, in so many words, confirm his party's total endorsement of the Mitchell report or unqualified acceptance of its six key principles.
He said Sinn Fein's approach to the report was positive. It had cleared away preconditions and provided an avenue for all party talks. But he added "Tactically, there is little merit in us coming to something positively if in this case the British government are rejecting it."
Mr Adams accused Mr Major of seizing upon "one peripheral matter" in the Mitchell report "because he was afraid of all party talks". He said that if unionists wanted to pursue the electoral proposal "let them come into talks and put it where it belongs as part of the necessary discussion, but not as any sort of a precondition. Our opposition to that is implacable and absolute."
He commented that "Elections obviously have to play a part somewhere as we come to a settlement, but not as a precondition for talks about a settlement."
Sinn Fein would talk to the Government and the other parties to try to ensure that the twin track approach removed all preconditions.
Meanwhile, the UUP leader insisted that what had been agreed in the British and Irish joint communique last November was a target date which depended on, satisfactory resolution of the decommissioning issue.
He said adoption by Sinn Fein of the six Mitchell principles would not be sufficient to bring about all party talks. The six principles did not bear on the, Washington 3 preconditions which required some prior decommissioning of arms.
Speaking in an interview on RTE Radio, Mr Trimble added "That does not mean the decommissioning requirement is dropped. It is still there and will still have to be satisfied for the, purpose of moving into serious negotiations. But it is the only way there is going to be dialogue with all the parties."
Mr Patsy McGlone of the SDLP said there was a growing view that the British intention was to attempt to divide Irish nationalist consensus on the peace process. "In doing so they have completely under estimated the wide spread nationalist resentment, North and South," he said.