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| NEWSMAKER: GEORGE MITCHELL | |
 July 29, 1999 
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Former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell talks about the effort to bring peace to Northern Ireland and his role as mediator.
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JIM LEHRER: Rescuing the peace in Northern Ireland. We start with some background from Spencer Michels.
SPENCER MICHELS: On Good Friday of last year, American mediator George Mitchell announced a peace deal aimed at ending 30 years of fighting. The agreement came after hours of non-stop negotiating with Northern Ireland leaders as well as the prime ministers of Britain and the Irish Republic. The marathon session culminated 22 months of work by the former U.S. Senate Majority Leader to bring Protestants and Catholics together. GEORGE MITCHELL: Good luck. Have a happy Easter. God bless all the people of Northern Ireland. [Applause]
DAVID TRIMBLE: I want specifically to address Sinn Fein at this point. We know that you are a part of this process; we know that your involvement is necessary for a successful outcome, but you must know that it won't work unless you address the issue of peace and weapons.
GERRY ADAMS: I think that Mr. Trimble's position is untenable. He should step down, or the British prime minister should stand him down. SPENCER MICHELS: Ironically, peacemaker Mitchell was at that moment in London, receiving honorary an knighthood for helping negotiate the deal, which by then was falling apart. Last week, Mitchell was called back to Northern Ireland by the British and Irish prime ministers to try save the accord. After two meetings with leaders from both sides, he said he would begin a formal review September 6th. GEORGE MITCHELL: The conflict lasted a long time, establishing a durable peace and genuine reconciliation will also take a long time.
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| In whose interest? | ||||||||||||||||||||
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GEORGE MITCHELL, Former Senate Majority Leader and U.S. mediator in Northern Ireland: Thank you, Jim. JIM LEHRER: Do you go into this again with a feeling of disappointment or what? GEORGE MITCHELL: Disappointed, yes. Not surprised. When I announced the agreement, I said that I thought that it would not by itself provide a guarantee of peace and political stability but it would make them possible and there would be many long, difficult days ahead. What we're seeing in Northern Ireland is what we've seen in the Middle East, what we've seen in the Balkans and in other areas of conflict. It's very difficult to get peace agreements. It's even more difficult to gain their implementation. JIM LEHRER: Why? In whose interest - speaking of Northern Ireland specifically -- in whose interest is it now for this peace agreement not to hold?
JIM LEHRER: So what went wrong since Good Friday? GEORGE MITCHELL: Well, we all knew it would be difficult. Even if this is resolved, as I hope and believe it will, there will be other tough decisions ahead this fall and later next year. At the root of it all is mistrust. Each side disbelieves the other. Each side assumes the worst about the other. Each side acts on the premise that the other side will not keep its promises. And so it's very hard in that atmosphere to get them to agree to take steps that are politically risky. JIM LEHRER: But the specific issue... is the conventional wisdom here, that the real issue is when the I.R.A. disarms -- is that correct? GEORGE MITCHELL: It's not the only issue. First off, of course there are paramilitary groups on both sides. JIM LEHRER: Both sides, OK. GEORGE MITCHELL: But the issue of decommissioning is central. It's very emotional, very important to both sides. |
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| A timing issue or a doing issue? | ||||||||||||||||||||
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JIM LEHRER: Is it a timing issue or is it a doing issue?
JIM LEHRER: Now, how in the world do you get them to trust each other? GEORGE MITCHELL: Well, I don't think I can get them to trust each other. JIM LEHRER: What do you do? How are you going to do this? GEORGE MITCHELL: Well, I think the first thing, of course, is to work hard and patiently and listen and try to gain the sense of the possibility of common ground. Secondly, to point out that it's very much in their interest to go forward. These are, after all, the parties who supported the agreement. Although I met with last weekend, will involve again, the parties who didn't support the agreement because they have a right to have input as well. And finally, of course, it is making clear that the risk of action -- great as it is -- is substantially less than the risk of inaction. That is, if this agreement fails and if there is a resumption of conflict, that would be the worst outcome and these political leaders will be rightly held responsible by their constituents and by history. Every one of them sought power. Not a one of them is there involuntarily. They've got power. In this case they have a very great responsibility that goes with it -- literally life and death in their hands rests not just the future of the society but lives, human beings' lives.
GEORGE MITCHELL: In every democratic society, including our own, the public regularly sends to their political leaders clear and sharply conflicting messages. And what the political leaders of Northern Ireland are being told by their constituents are two things, and they're directly in conflict. First, settle this. We don't want to go back to war. Second, settle it on our terms. And our terms means one thing in one community and a completely different thing in the other community. And, of course, the test of leadership in a democratic society and in all societies is to reconcile those conflicting instructions, to somehow come up with an approach that gets the job done and that each side can say to their community, the political leaders on each side, "This is in our interest." That's really the challenge. JIM LEHRER: So when Trimble says, "I am not going to be a party of this government until the I.R.A. disarms" and the I.R.A. says, "We're not going to disarm until this government forms," both of them have to go back and say, well, we got our way or it's not going to work. GEORGE MITCHELL: Well, not that we got our way 100 percent but that we found a way to move forward together that is in your best interest because it provides, it makes possible peace and political stability and reconciliation. That, it seems to me, is clearly the overwhelming desire of the large majority of people in Northern Ireland. And so they have to figure out -- and my job is not to tell them how to do it but to help them find a way themselves -- to figure out a way to move forward that's politically acceptable in both communities, and I believe it can be done and I believe it will be done. |
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| Making a plan | ||||||||||||||||||||
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JIM LEHRER: Have you got an idea? GEORGE MITCHELL: I've got a lot of them. JIM LEHRER: Do you think you have a way that you can make this work? I mean, you've got a specific plan that you can. GEORGE MITCHELL: No JIM LEHRER: I'm not going to ask you what it is. GEORGE MITCHELL: No, no, no, no. I don't have a plan written down on paper that's point 1, 2, 3, 4. JIM LEHRER: You take this, you take that and we can make...
JIM LEHRER: When you and others-- you just said it a few moments ago that if this doesn't work and people are going to start killing each other again, is that just talk or do you really believe that will happen? GEORGE MITCHELL: I believe that and I believe it because that's what these delegates told me for two years. JIM LEHRER: They looked you straight in the eye and said, "If we don't make peace here, people are going to die again." GEORGE MITCHELL: Over and over and over again. Keeping the talks going was paramount to these political leaders because they felt if the process failed totally and finally that there would be a return to conflict and they did not want that. JIM LEHRER: They couldn't prevent it as individuals... in other words, the leaders of one side could not prevent their people from killing the people on the others and vice versa? GEORGE MITCHELL: No, because you do not have a situation where an individual or a small group of individuals totally controls everything within his or her community. This is a democratic society. There are all kinds of people with all kinds of views. There are a dozen political entities. When I go there, I don't just meet with two sides. Last week I met with 11 different political parties plus the two governments. That's 13 political entities involved in this process. Now, some share some things in common, others in common. It's very, very hard. I wrote a book about it and I simplified it as much as I could but people constantly tell me, "Well, I can't keep all the parties straight." And, I say to them," Neither can I and I've been there for three years." There are really a lot of different entities. No one has complete control. JIM LEHRER: Why does this matter so much to you? |
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GEORGE MITCHELL: Well, it's become personal. My father was of Irish heritage although he was an orphan adopted by a non-Irish family and so there wasn't much Irishness growing up in the United States. In fact, when President Clinton asked me to go there as I left the Senate in 1959 I had only been to the Republic of Ireland once for two days and I had never been to Northern Ireland but I became involved and it awakened a sense of heritage. But more importantly, because the heritage part of it was just a gratuitous coincidence, I became deeply and emotionally involved with the people of Northern Ireland. They're wonderful people -- energetic, industrious, productive, very warm and hearty. They deserve better than this. In the course of this whole process, my wife gave birth to a son. I have a young son born in October of 1997. On that day I checked and found out 61 babies were born in Northern Ireland, and I became almost obsessed with the thought that don't those 61 children, aren't they entitled to the same chance in life that my wife and I want for my son? What would their lives be like if they had been born Americans? What would his life be like if he had been born in Northern Ireland? The fact is that parents everywhere have the same aspirations and I have a chance to play a role, however small, in bringing to an end an ancient conflict and making it possible for generations to come to lead more full, secure and meaningful lives. It's personally inconvenient for me. It's difficult. But in the end that's a reward greater than anything I could ever have hoped for. JIM LEHRER: Thank you, sir. GEORGE MITCHELL: Thank you, Jim. |
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GEORGE
MITCHELL: This agreement is good for-the people of Ireland-- North and
South. 
SPENCER
MICHELS: The deal Mitchell helped broker brought the 1998 Nobel Peace
Prize to both John Hume, the Catholic community leader, and David Trimble,
the Protestant leader. At the heart of the accord was a power-sharing
arrangement between the majority Protestants who desired to remain in
union with Great Britain and the minority Catholics who want to be part
of the Irish Republic to the South. But the accord is now in jeopardy
over the issue of how and when to disarm Catholic and Protestant paramilitary
groups. By now, the joint Northern Ireland government was supposed to
be in place, but its establishment was derailed two weeks ago when 28
Protestant leaders boycotted a meeting of the New Assembly. The boycott
was led by Protestant leader Trimble, who said he wouldn't share power
with Sinn Fein, the political arm of the Catholic Irish Republican Army,
until the IRA began to disarm.
SPENCER
MICHELS: Sinn Fein Leader Gerry Adams said Trimble was trying to rewrite
the Good Friday Agreement. Trimble, he said, should resign his post
as minister in the new government.
SPENCER
MICHELS: Both sides met separately with Prime Minister Toby Blair last
week, but the finger pointing continued. IRA leaders released a statement
saying peace prospects have substantially diminished in recent months.
In reaction, Protestant Leader Trimble described the IRA's rhetoric
as menacing and offensive. 
JIM
LEHRER: Welcome Senator. 
GEORGE
MITCHELL: It is not only in the interest of those who have opposed the
agreement. Both those within the political process -- and there are
some parties who have always been against the agreement -- and those
outside the political process on both sides who refuse to give up violence
and who want to have it their way 100 percent. They're the only ones.
It's certainly not in the interest of the people of Northern Ireland
and it's not in the interest of those political leaders who supported
the agreement. That, I think, in the end is what gives me hope, that
the decision now is within the hands and power of those who supported
the agreement. It would be an incredible irony and a terrible tragedy
if they now fell out over interpretation of the agreement. 
GEORGE
MITCHELL: Well, that's still open to question. I believe it's a timing
issue. The agreement requires that everyone involved make their full
efforts to gain decommissioning by two years after the agreement was
approved, that is to say, May 2000. Some people have not fully owned
up to that yet and that's a matter of concern. Second is timing. Third
is sequence. When do actions of decommissioning occur in relation to
other actions, such as formation of their executive, which is what we
would call a cabinet. So, there are a lot of things and there are a
lot of arguments, but in the end, at the bottom it's a question of mistrust.
They simply don't believe the other side. 
JIM
LEHRER: So if the majority, let's say the majority is behind Sinn Fein
on one side and the majority is behind Trimble on the other side, then
what is the political pressure on them not to make a deal, not to figure
out a way to circumvent trust if that's what has to be done in order
to get this done? 
GEORGE
MITCHELL: No, no, but I'm confident that there is such a plan and I
know what the elements are that it can be developed from. Remember,
in the last two months, the British and Irish governments proposed one
plan at Hillsboro which is the town where they met just outside of bell
fast. One side accepted it, the other side did not. They then came up
with another plan which they called "The Way Forward." One side accepted
it; the other side did not. In each case the side accepting was different.
So, you know right there that you have the elements because you've got
two plans each has accepted a plan. Unfortunately neither, in no case
have both sides accepted the same plan. So you have to work from that.