Talks next month aimed at reviving the Northern peace process could succeed if republican concerns on policing are tackled in the short term, the president of Sinn Féin said. Dan Keenan, Northern News Editor, reports.
In his most positive assessment of the prospects for agreement on policing to date, Mr Gerry Adams, writing in The Irish Times, says the transfer of powers on policing and justice away from London to Belfast within a short timeframe is "crucial".
". . . If the outstanding issues around policing, which are mainly about achieving civic policing and democratic control of policing, are dealt with, as I believe they can be, then I would be prepared to go to our ardchomhairle to ask for a special ardfheis to discuss this matter," Mr Adams writes.
He says such a move, which would bring policing and justice within the ambit of the agreement, has been agreed by London, but "the details have yet to be worked out and unionist agreement is also necessary".
He adds: "There should be no underestimation of the scale of shift in republican and nationalist thinking for Sinn Féin to be involved in policing, not only because of the emotions involved, not only because of the nationalist experience of policing in the North, but also because our country is still partitioned. For this reason the transfer of powers on policing and justice away from London to Belfast within a short timeframe is crucial."
His remarks follow his acknow-ledgment last week that unionists harboured "justifiable fears" about the IRA, while "political unionism uses the IRA and the issue of IRA arms as an excuse". Mr Adams, significantly, added: "I think that republicans need to be prepared to remove that as an excuse."
In today's article Mr Adams compares the challenge to "an Everest to be conquered", and says: "In my view that is not an impossible task. It will have to be conquered sometime. Why not now?"
Sounding a note of caution Mr Adams denounces as totally unacceptable what he sees as demands from the Democratic Unionists for fundamental changes to the Belfast Agreement. "Getting the political process back on track requires much more than the demand that the IRA disarm and disband."
Mr Adams details the policing and justice reforms which he believes are necessary to convince republicans that a sustainable political process, which enables change, has been established.
He warns the two governments and unionists that a republican shift on policing would be a bigger strategic compromise for them than the Belfast Agreement.
Mr Adams wants the abolition of plastic bullets and the end of what he calls the British condoning of collusion, and the protection of human rights abusers, as illustrated by the refusal to allow the family of Pat Finucane the inquiry they seek.
He turns also to other commitments by both governments which, he writes, are linked to last October's failed efforts to re-establish devolution.
"Delivery by both London and Dublin on these issues will not only have to be part of any future comprehensive and holistic package, but their place in the sequence is also crucial." It is understood these have been at the core of talks between Sinn Féin negotiators and British officials close to Mr Tony Blair.
Mr Adams says that human rights and equality for his party's constituency should not be viewed as concessions, rather they are fundamental entitlements.
Last night, Sinn Féin's Mr Alex Maskey called on the DUP to make clear its response to Mr Adams's comments of last week, accusing them of sending mixed signals.
Mr Ian Paisley jnr dismissed the remarks while other significant DUP sources took a more qualified and positive view.