By Anne Cadwallader
BELFAST — Pressure is building for a breakthrough in the peace process as both the taoiseach and the British prime minister stand by to fly to Belfast this weekend in a last ditch bid to break the impasse in time for the Easter deadlines set for the new Northern Ireland executive.
The signs, however, do not look good as both sides in the impasse appear equally adamant on their respective positions. Ulster Unionist officials are insisting on a verifiable and credible beginning to IRA decommissioning and Sinn Fein are equally insistent that no such precondition exists in the Good Friday agreement.
Transfer of powers from Whitehall to the new Northern Ireland executive in Stormont is scheduled to take place on Good Friday, April 2, a year after the agreement was signed. The UUP is insisting that decommissioning begin before Sinn Fein can take its place on the executive.
Britain’s Northern Ireland secretary, Mo Mowlam, has warned of the "very serious" consequences if the parties fail to reach agreement on decommissioning before Easter. She said there was no plausible alternative to the agreement. There was no mileage in renegotiating it, Mowlam said, in what appeared to be a rejection of Ulster Unionist suggestions for a review. It was not feasible to put the agreement on ice if the IRA doesn’t decommission, she said.
The timetable was daunting, said Mowlam, as shadow ministers would need to be appointed by early next week to have any chance of devolving power by Easter. There were real fears in both communities, she said. But the parties were divided by very little compared to the gulf that existed until recently, Mowlam said.
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Sinn Fein’s Gerry Kelly visited IRA prisoners in the Maze jail on Monday and emerged to say not one had suggested any token gesture on decommissioning to move the process forward.
Kelly said the prisoners supported the Sinn Fein stand and were angry and concerned at the failure to implement the Good Friday peace agreement.
The Ulster Unionist Party leader, David Trimble, was heckled over decommissioning on Saturday by his own party members, after speaking at the annual general meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council.
Trimble restated his belief that the IRA would decommission, and it was a question not of if they would, but when.
Meanwhile, loyalist Frankie Curry was gunned down by a contract killer, according to Shankill Road sources. Curry had opposed the Good Friday agreement and had fallen out with members of the group he had once led, the Red Hand Commandos.
The UVF were being blamed by the UDA for the killing, but according to reliable sources, Curry was sought out because of his involvement in the murder of a loyalist drug dealer in Bangor, the motive — revenge.
In the murky underworld of extreme loyalism, where the truth begins and falsehoods end is difficult to tell. There was tension within both mainstream loyalist groups as a result of the killing with fears of a feud developing.
Curry had many enemies and had already been forced to flee the Shankill Road and Bangor. He was staying in Portadown at the time of his murder, only visiting the Shankill to see his mother.
Six bullets were fired into his head at close range on St. Patrick’s Day. He was killed instantly. He had only been released from jail 48 hours earlier after serving a short sentence for a driving offense.