|
|
 |
|
 |
 |
| UNSECURED PEACE | |
 March 16, 1999 
|
||
|
|
The already shaky state of peace in Northern Ireland took another hit Monday when a noted human rights lawyer was killed in a terrorist car bombing. Following this look at the state of the peace almost a year after the Good Friday agreement, the NewsHour talks to the prime minister of Ireland, Bertie Ahern, and the United Kingdom's lead official in Northern Ireland, Marjorie Mowlam.
|
|
PHIL PONCE: A prominent Catholic human rights lawyer
PHIL PONCE: The agreement called for a new Northern Ireland Assembly and a cabinet called the Executive that would give self-rule to the six county province for the first time since 1972. All signers agreed that disarming or decommissioning paramilitary groups -- including the Irish Republican Army -- should be part of the plan. But they struggled with the wording and could only agree to attempt to disarm within two years -- through a commission headed by a Canadian General John De Chastelain. Police have found weapons and ammunition stashed throughout the region. They believe these stockpiles belong to the paramilitary groups. |
 |
||||||
| A vote for peace. | ||||||||
|
SPOKESMAN: Yes, 71.12 percent - (cheers) --
WOMAN: This is the greatest moment in the history of Northern Ireland. PHIL PONCE: In June, voters in Northern Ireland picked a 108-member
National Assembly. But the violence did not end. In July, three young
brothers in Ballymoney were killed |
||||||||
| |||||
 | |||||
| |||||
|
|
| |||
| |||||
| |||||
| Support the kind of journalism done by the NewsHour...Become a member of your local PBS station. | |||||
was
killed by a car bomb in Northern Ireland Monday. An extremist Protestant
group claimed responsibility for the murder of Rosemary Nelson. This
comes after months of relative peace in the British province. It's been
almost a year since the landmark Good Friday peace agreement was signed
by both Republicans or Nationalists--who seek closer ties with the Republic
of Ireland -- and Unionists or Loyalists who favor continued union with
Britain. The deal was brokered by former U.S. Senate Majority Leader
George Mitchell and backed by Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern and
British Prime Minister Tony Blair. 
TONY
BLAIR: I believe that today courage has triumphed. I said when I arrived
here on Wednesday night that I felt the hand of history upon us. Today
I hope that the burden of history can at long last start to be lifted
from our shoulders -- 
PHIL
PONCE: Last May there were celebrations in the mostly Catholic Republic
of Ireland and in mostly Protestant Northern Ireland after voters ratified
the peace plan.
when a Molotov cocktail was thrown into the home where they lived with
their Catholic mother and her Protestant boyfriend. Then, in August,
in the town of Omagh, a car bomb killed 28 people and wounded 220 others
-- a radical Republican group calling itself the "Real IRA" claimed
responsibility. The new National Assembly and Executive Cabinet were
supposed to begin work last Wednesday. But David Trimble, the Unionist
picked to be the new chief executive -- would not let Sinn Fein take
its two seats in the cabinet or allow the groups start working until
the IRA took steps to disarm. The British officer in charge of Northern
Ireland, Marjorie Mowlam, has postponed the start of the assembly for
three weeks. Gerry Adams and other leaders of Sinn Fein, the political
arm of the IRA -- argue the Good Friday plan does not require such an
act by the IRA. The British Government has given the parties until the
end of March to resolve the disarmament issue. Once again the deadline
falls during the week of Good Friday.
