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| PRIME MINISTER AHERN | |
 March 16, 1999 
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Almost a year since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, Ireland's prime minster, Bertie Ahern, discusses the state of the peace process in Northern Ireland with Phil Ponce.
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PHIL PONCE: Earlier today I spoke with Irish Prime Minister Bertie
Ahern, who's in Washington for St. BERTIE AHERN: Thank you very much, and nice to be on your program. |
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| Is the Good Friday Agreement coming undone? | |||||||||||||||||
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PHIL PONCE: Mr. Prime Minister, the IRA is not disarming, the government that was supposed to be in place in Northern Ireland is not in place, killings continue, many people in this country are under the impression that the Good Friday Agreement has come undone. Has it? BERTIE AHERN: No, I think what you said are all truths. The other side of it is that the killing this week was the first of the year. In our terms, that is good, for we had them daily for 30 years. It's bad that we've had any and particularly that we've had such a prominent human rights and civil rights lawyer who was blown up, and -- but the progress that has been made has been immense. The elections that are over, the Assembly is in place, I think the executive is ready to be set up; the British-Irish Agreement, the North-South structures that were in the Agreement -- are all in place. We have one major issue still unresolved; that's how to deal with the decommissioning of arms, or at least the commencement of that. That is the one issue that is stopping us moving on with all of the other things that are in place. And that, of course, is what's taxing our mind on this week in Washington.
BERTIE AHERN: Well, I think that the difficulty is that while in the Good Friday Agreement, there was no preconditions that we had an understanding where we would we would get to, and that we would try and set up the executive without the decommission issue being resolved, it is not possible for the other side to do that and they have little room to maneuver so that -- PHIL PONCE: You mean, politically it is not - BERTIE AHERN: Politically. PHIL PONCE: -- possible for them to set up the executive, the new cabinet, unless the IRA starts taking active efforts to decommission, to disarm? BERTIE AHERN: Or that there be an understanding that - when they would do that, because it arises from the section on decommissioning in the Good Friday Agreement, which states that there will be a decommissioning of arms within a two-year period. The IRA have stated that that is not their intention. So that creates uncertainty and doubt in the minds of the Unionists, so what we need to do is bring that certainty that that deadline will be achieved -- that's the good offices of Sinn Fein to influence those that they can influence in the IRA -- will decommit our arms, and we have to find some acceptable balance between both Sinn Fein and the Ulster Unionists on how we can move forward on that. It's not easy to do, but I think it is an imperative to do if we are to get these things to work and to work very quickly. |
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| IRA decommissioning. | |||||||||||||||||
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PHIL PONCE: Now the IRA makes the point that under the letter of the agreement, there is no requirement that they disarm at this point and further, they argue that the objections are just another step on the part of the Unionists to keep them out of power. How do you respond to that? BERTIE AHERN: They do, and if that was their stated PHIL PONCE: Mr. Prime Minister, getting back to the issue of the death of Rosemary Nelson, is that going to make it harder for the IRA, for Sinn Fein, to give if they see that somebody in their community was recently killed? BERTIE AHERN: I think it is, yes, it puts more pressure, I think it will make the people in the Nationalist and the Republican communities more hard-line on these issues. It appears that this splinter line, this group, used a very sophisticated technology in this explosive. Rosemary, who had been over here in front of the House committee last year and stated at that time that she was under stress, that her civil rights work was being attacked -- so the fact that she has now been assassinated, of course, is something that is going to put a lot of frighteners into the Nationalist community and understandably so.
BERTIE AHERN: I think it would be helpful. It may not resolve everything, but I think it would definitely be helpful, because the concern of Unionists and many others too is that the arms will never go out of circulation, and thereby even if they're not used for paramilitary activity, they could be used for criminality and other issues, so that is a concern of genuine democrats. So I think that would be a move. On the other side, I think Unionists would say they need an actual start to that process, but we have to try and negotiate what that can mean. And what we have done on the Good Friday Agreement is -- General John De Chastelain and an independent group of non-Irish and non-British people have worked on the decommissioning body and they are trying to structure something that they could say that will allow both sides to move forward. And within the art of politics and compromise and negotiations, there is always words and things that can work together. The Unionists' position is that they're not looking for all decommissioning, that they're looking for just a signal that this is going to happen. On the other side, I think the Republican movement are saying that they are committed to the Good Friday Agreement, which says that they will use their best efforts for this to happen by this time next year. So, while the differences are immense, there are areas for compromise. |
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| President Clinton's role. | |||||||||||||||||
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PHIL PONCE: Many of the key players are in Washington right now. What role can President Clinton play, or what role would you like for the president to play, and is this sort of a key opportunity to break this impasse?
PHIL PONCE: Mr. Prime Minister, I thank you for joining us. BERTIE AHERN: Thank you very much. |
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Patrick's
Day. Mr. Prime Minister, first of all, welcome, thank you for speaking
with us. 
PHIL
PONCE: And, Mr. Prime Minister, on that issue, you have a close relationship
with the Republicans, with Sinn Fein, and, yet, you have been out front
in asking that they be sensitive to the other side's interest in decommissioning
or disarming. Why have you taken that position?
position,
I think if they made clear that they will disarm then under the letter
of the law of the agreement, which would be by this time next year,
I think that would be remarkably helpful to that. But from three weeks
after the agreement, they stated that they had no intention of decommitting
their arms, either within the two years or afterwards. And, I can understand
their arguments, but I can equally understand the arguments of the Ulster
Unionists. And what we must do as the negotiators and one of the key
guarantors of the agreement is to find an acceptable way of satisfying
both Sinn Fein and their understanding of the agreement and at the same
time, a political resolution for the Unionists so that they can move
both together, because, remember, the key point about this, Phil, is
that both of these people are going to sit down in governments together
to run Northern Ireland, and the level of trust and confidence between
them has to be strong at the start. And of course, unless we resolve
this issue, it will not be strong. 
PHIL
PONCE: Mr. Prime Minister, getting back to the issue of decommissioning,
of disarming, are you saying that it might be possible to come up with
an agreement whereby the IRA doesn't have to physically have to start
turning in weapons, that maybe some kind of a strong assurance of eventual
progress, that could conceivably be helpful? 
