The Northern Secretary has said she wants a little more time to decide whether the IRA ceasefire is intact. Dr. Mowlam was speaking after an hour-long meeting in Belfast with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, David Andrews. Speaking to RTÉ News At One, Mr. Andrews said that he imagined Dr. Mowlam would make her decision in days rather than weeks, but added that he did not wish in any way to anticipate that decision. Mr. Andrews maintained that the axing of Sinn Féin from talks would make the process less meaningful.
Following the Ministers’ meeting, the Ulster Unionist security spokesman, Ken Maginnis, said he did not want to see the immediate expulsion of Sinn Féin from the northern peace process. Mr. Maginnis said that he believed the immediate expulsion of Sinn Féin would serve no purpose, as it would be a propaganda coup for the IRA. Instead, he said, Sinn Féin should be subjected to scrutiny by the Mitchell review which is due to begin in September. Mr. Maginnis described the Northern Secretary's delay in assessing the state of the IRA ceasefire as “stupid”.
Earlier today, the Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble, said that the only way the Good Friday Agreement will succeed is for all paramilitary violence to stop. Speaking at a summer school in Omagh, Mr. Trimble said that there could be no killing or maiming, either on the terrible scale experienced in the bombing of the town or on a smaller day-by-day scale. He said that Omagh had become a model of reconciliation and renewal. He added that Sinn Féin must realise that the Agreement cannot work without arms decommissioning.
The First Minister, who was speaking for the first time since his four-week holiday break, said that serious questions had to be addressed by the leadership of the Republican movement. He also said that it was time for the British government to tell the truth about recent violence. He said that the early release of prisoners should be looked at, but he stopped short of calling for an end to the programme. In his address, Mr. Trimble called on Seamus Mallon to resume his position as Deputy First Minister.
Responding to the First Minister's comments, Sinn Féin's national chairman, Mitchel McLaughlin, said that Mr. Trimble should stop blaming everybody else for the impasse that had been created. He said that he should stop attempting to rewrite the Good Friday Agreement on Unionist terms and accept that the Agreement is a compromise between opponents and implement it fully on that basis.
