Trimble Ties a knot in the Tail

["D OC" <donaloc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Trimble here has effectively reduced to zero the possibility of getting the
Stormont Executive back up and running. This strategy is high risk and could
lead to serious outcomes.

from: http://www.utv.ie/newsroom/indepth.asp?pt=n&id=24666

Words like ``the war is over`` that might once have meant something cut no
ice today, he told the party annual conference in Londonderry.

Neither would deeds, if, again they were ``grudging and minimalist``.

Unionists would not be satisfied with some ``phantom disbandment``. The
paramilitaries really had to go away. ``Their day is over,`` said Mr
Trimble.

The message was also for loyalist paramilitaries, as well, he said. ``People
are fed up to the back-teeth with the racketeering and feuding that is
disguised as loyalist.

``To those still addicted to violence, drugs and criminality, we say in the
name of God, go.``

But it was republicans Mr Trimble focused on as he gave the Prime Minister
his considered response to his Belfast speech on Thursday.

Tony Blair had pointed the finger unambiguously at the IRA, said Mr Trimble.

The real question now was how he would follow through in terms of actions in
the coming months. ``He must not repeat the mistake of government actions in
advance or in response to republican promises.

``This time he must insist on completed acts.``

He added: ``It is time for conclusions, time for the transition that
republicans say they are making to be completed.``

Mr Trimble had no intention of going back to his party seeking backing for a
return to the power-sharing administration ``until it is demonstrably clear
that this time obligations have been fulfilled.``

To be fair, he said, republicans had done some things - not enough - but
they had moved. They were not ``wholly unreconstructed`` but during the past
spring and summer the evidence of ``serious backsliding`` had been
overwhelming.

To Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams he said: ``It`s up to you, only this time
do not expect promises or beginnings to do the trick.``

He said he was not downhearted to be out of office again following
allegations of an republican spy ring at Stormont. ``We will just roll up
our sleeves again and get down again to the job of forcing republicans to
behave democratically.``

The raid on Sinn Fein`s office at Stormont, he said, had not been just
another crisis in the peace process, it was ``the moment when the republican
spin machine ran out of road.``

``No longer can the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland refer to a
unionist `perception` of republican wrong-doing.

``The problem was not our perception, but the reality of a republican
movement mired in its anti-democratic, conspiratorial and criminal past.

``Our scepticism about the oft-stated republican commitment to `conflict
resolution` has proved well founded,`` he told delegates.

He hit out stressing: ``Frankly republicans` words are as devalued as
Argentina`s currency. Words like `The War is Over` that might once have
meant something cut no ice today.

``Neither will deeds, if again they are grudging and minimalist.

``We will not be satisfied with some phantom disbandment. The paramilitaries
really do have to go away. Their day is over.``

The unionist leader had harsh words for the British government too over the
suspension of devolution. He said back in July Ulster Secretary John Reid
had given what he called a ``yellow card`` to republicans. ``He promised
that if they were caught with their hands in the till again the government
would support the exclusion of Sinn Fein from the Executive.``

It would have been the just result, not the unfair one of suspending
everyone and punishing the innocent along with the guilty.

``Reid and Blair have not bothered to justify breaking their word. Evidently
they do not need to explain. It`s just what they do,`` he said.

Speaking outside the conference, Mr Trimble indicated he saw no purpose in
round table talks between the parties in Belfast in the immediate future.

Sinn Fein has called on the British and Irish governments to hold such
discussions to address the latest political crisis.

But speaking on BBC Northern Ireland`s Inside Politics, Mr Trimble said: ``
I am not quite sure what there is to talk about because there is nothing we
can say with regard to whether or not paramilitaries are going to do what
they should in terms of finding ways of taking themselves out of the picture
as armed organisations.

snip...


~~~~~~~
PLEASE clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.