Governments call crisis summit

By Andrew Bushe

DUBLIN — The taoiseach and the British prime minister are to hold a crisis summit in London on Wednesday and then plan to meet the main Northern Ireland party leaders as frantic efforts continue to rescue the crisis-hit peace process.

Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair will first hold private talks at Downing Street to review progress in their agreed strategy and the result of series of meetings in Dublin, London and Belfast.

The two premiers then want to meet delegations for the SDLP, Sinn Fein and the Ulster Unionist Party to try to put the peace process back on track and set an early date for the rescinding of the suspension order that sidelined the nine-week-old institutions last week.

In the aftermath of Britain’s reimposition of direct rule Friday, events have moved quickly. On Tuesday, the IRA pulled its liaison to the decommissioning body and when Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams emerged from a meeting with British Northern Secretary Peter Mandelson, he said it had gone badly. Dublin and London, meanwhile, appear to have publicly patched up their differences and agreed a new bipartisan strategy aimed at breaking the logjam and speedily restoring the institutions.

The chaos surrounding the hours before and after Mandelson’s late-Friday-afternoon announcement of the suspension of the power-sharing deal led to a major behind-the-scenes rift.

The row resulted in cancellation of plans for a joint statement from the two governments several hours after the suspension.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern maintained an uncharacteristically low profile throughout the weekend and only made his first public comment on the debacle with an article in the Irish Times on Monday.

"I had a number of conversations with Tony Blair over the weekend and again this morning," Ahern said on Monday. "We have worked out our strategy over the next week and we have agreed on that.

"The main point to stress is that the suspension should be short lived. All our actions will be designed to make sure we get the institutions up and running again quickly."

Ahern said his senior officials — who have been involved in intensive shuttle diplomacy in recent weeks between the North’s political parties and the governments — would be renewing their round of talks.

The taoiseach, the SDLP and Sinn Fein want to avoid a long, drawn-out review that could spell the end of the Good Friday agreement.

The taoiseach is stressing the importance of the latest report from the Canadian head of the disarmament body, Gen. John de Chastelain, and said that Unionist leader David Trimble should talk to him and Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams.

"I think his [the General’s] words are very significant — what he put in chapter seven and eight of his document on Friday," Ahern said.

"Of course, I know what is behind that and why he put them there, but I am not at liberty under the rules to give the reasons. But it needs to be explored further."

He said the world wanted to know whether the IRA would decommission its arsenal, when and on what terms.

"I know that can’t happen overnight, it has to be done in an organized way," he said.

In his newspaper article, Ahern said there has been a "huge advance" in the IRA’s position on decommissioning and he described de Chastelain’s most recent report as having "deep significance."

"In effect, what the commission is saying is that it now believes, for the first time, that it has a commitment from the IRA itself that decommissioning will happen.

"Given where we have been coming from, that is a huge advance and one that we must now build on quickly.

"History has taught us the danger of vacuums in Northern Ireland. Time is not on our side. It is imperative, therefore, that the institutions be swiftly restored."

He hinted at Irish anger about the current crisis, saying that all parties to the Good Friday agreement had particular concerns and responsibilities. For his government this included the legal position because there is a written constitution — unlike Britain.

"That Constitution has now been amended to include the terms of the British-Irish agreement, terms which do not expressly include provision for suspension," he said.

"In that context, suspension raises issues of concern for the government and any significant extension of it could make the situation more difficult."

Foreign Minister Brian Cowen, meanwhile, cut short EU business in Brussels and met Mandelson in Belfast on Monday.

Cowen, who only recently took over the job from David Andrews and is undergoing a baptism of fire in the labyrinth of the North’s politics, stressed the need for the suspension order being rescinded immediately.

"Ideally today or tomorrow as far as the government is concerned," he said.

Asked about the tensions between Dublin and London, Cowen said that it had been a fast-evolving situation and London and Dublin had different points of emphasis but that "both governments are committed to working together" to restore confidence.

Government sources point to what they see as a huge change in the reports from the disarmament body between Jan. 31 and last Friday.

There was considerable anger in Dublin when the Jan. 31 report emerged from the British side shortly after the suspension order was announced by Mandelson late on Friday afternoon and at the same time as de Chastelain’s international commission submitted its second more positive assessment.

Journalists waited for a promised joint statement from the governments on the second report. As the night wore on, none emerged and the new de Chastelain report was released without official comment in Dublin about four hours after the devolved administration was put on ice.