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Sinn Fein vote for watershed conference on N. Ireland policing
2006-12-29
The executive of Sinn Fein, Northern Ireland's main Roman Catholic party, voted to hold a landmark conference next month on its attitude to policing -- the main obstacle to restoring power-sharing in the province. After a meeting lasting over six hours in a Dublin Airport hotel, the 55-member Ard Chomhairle (national executive) of the political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) gave the green light to a major step on the tortuous road towards a devolved administration in Belfast. Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams said that if the British and Irish governments and the Democratic Unionists (DUP) -- Northern Ireland's biggest Protestant party -- reacted positively to the decision then a crunch Ard Fheis (national delegate conference) on policing would go ahead. Sinn Fein's refusal to back the Police Service of Northern Ireland has been a major stumbling block to restoring the power-sharing government. The party has historically opposed recognising the PSNI and its predecessor the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) due to a perceived Protestant bias. Adams said Friday's debate had been "frank, comradely, robust". "This is only the first step of a democratic engagement with the Republican people of this island." Adams said the party would consult with "veterans" and "those who had been through hard times, those who have been bereaved" by the RUC. "The Ard Fheis will go ahead, the Ard Chomhairle has endorsed the motion and has called the special Ard Fheis if others respond positively. Making peace is collective so we all have to be part of sorting this out." The British and Irish governments have set a March 26 deadline for Northern Ireland's parties to have restored power-sharing between majority Protestants, who mostly favour retaining links with Britain, and Catholics, who largely favour union with the Republic of Ireland. Otherwise the parties will see the window of opportunity slam shut and the province ruled from London indefinitely. Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern welcomed the "landmark" decision to hold what would be "a defining moment in the peace process". "With all parties honouring their commitments to policing and to power sharing, 2007 should offer real opportunity for stability and a whole new political landscape in Northern Ireland." A spokeswoman from British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Downing Street office said: "This statement is significant because of the unequivocal support that Sinn Fein says it will offer -- if this motion is passed at the Ard Fheis -- to not just the police but also to those in communities who report crimes. "For the first time there is the real prospect of all parties and all sections of the community in Northern Ireland supporting the rule of law." Earlier, Britain's Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain described Friday's meeting as "seismic" in its implications, "on a scale at least as comparable" as the IRA's decision to call off its war and to decommission its arsenal. The DUP's hardline leader Ian Paisley has said that he will take the post of Northern Ireland's first minister -- another crucial marker-post on the road to restoring power-sharing -- if Sinn Fein backs the PSNI. The promise of self-rule was among the main planks of the landmark 1998 Good Friday agreement which ended three decades of "the Troubles", in which over 3,500 people died, many at the hands of the IRA. But devolved government was suspended in 2002 after allegations of an IRA spy ring at Stormont, the Belfast seat of administration, and Northern Ireland has been back under direct rule from London ever since.
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