Republicans bash Trimble threat

By Anne Cadwallader

BELFAST — Republican sources say the July 1 deadline set by First Minister David Trimble for IRA decommissioning is "not possible" and that his threat to resign has worked against the ability of Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness to resolve the arms issue.

Trimble said last Tuesday that he would step down unless the IRA had begun decommissioning by July. Intense negotiations on the peace process will likely resume on a range of issues after the June 7 elections, whatever the results.

McGuinness called Trimble’s bombshell "an absolute disaster" and since then republican sources have accused the British government of failing to honor its May 2000 deal made with the IRA, including the full implementation of the Patten report on policing.

It was in the context of these issues that the IRA pledged to put its arms "beyond use," it has said. The post-election negotiations will return to those issues. A republican source said this week it would have to see "the color of the British government’s money" before making any decision on IRA arms.

The Irish government says it was "surprised" by the Trimble threat. The minister of state at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Liz O’Donnell, said he had given no hint of such a move in talks the previous week with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

The British Northern secretary, John Reid, called on all sides in the peace process to work together or risk "falling into the abyss." He spoke amid warnings that Trimble’s threat could signal the end of the Good Friday agreement.

But Trimble’s threat to resign was also praised as a "pivotal change of policy" on decommissioning by one of his fiercest critics. East Derry MP William Ross welcomed his post-dated letter of resignation, saying the IRA had for too long "thumbed its nose at decent people" over weapons.