W2E-001 Ulster editorials 1-1.txt
MORNING VIEW

Peace mission lacks credibility

THE close working relationship between Prime Minister John Major and Ulster Unionist leader James Molyneaux will be under considerable strain when the pair meet for talks this week. And no wonder.

The willingness of the Government to appease Sinn Fein and the IRA so as to get them to accept the Downing Street Declaration has undermined the security operation to such an extent that the terrorists are now effectively calling the shots, in terms of violence and propaganda.

The nightly debacle at Heathrow has made security at Europe's busiest airport a sick joke, yet the Government clings to the mistaken belief that those responsible for these murderous attacks can be persuaded peaceful political aims.

Government ineptitude has allowed the IRA to make significant gains from its 25 years of shooting and bombing and, as long as this weakness continues in high places, the Provisionals are not going to assume a position where they are merely a marginal political party with less than 10 per cent of electoral support in Northern Ireland and 2 per cent in Eire.

They believe there are more political concessions in the pipeline and are prepared to kill to secure them.

Unionists are not only appalled by the Government's apparent soft line on terrorism and its willingness to do Dublin's bidding.

John Major's Tory back-benchers are also demanding an urgent reappraisal of Government policy to take account of the dangerous situation that has developed in the three months since the signing of the Declaration on December 15.

Peace has now become the most over-used word in the vocabulary of the political rulers in both London and Dublin as they pathetically wait for the response of the IRA and Sinn Fein to the Declaration, content only to fire a barrage of words.

John Major and Albert Reynolds are indeed beginning to look ridiculous, as they shake their fists indignantly at the Heathrow bombers and declare: "You are making a grave miscalculation."

Their impotence in the face of the IRA's continuing campaign is matched only by the feeble response of the Ulster Secretary of State Sir Patrick Mayhew who keeps telling us the peace process is "still on the rails".

His must be the peace that by-passes all understanding of those who live with the daily nightmare of terrorism and realise that the IRA has absolutely no intention of calling a permanent ceasefire, and a surrender of arms, ammunition and explosives.

This view was confirmed by an IRA statement last night which ruled out an end of the terror unless the Government caves into its demands - to talk and to negotiate the ending of the British presence in Northern Ireland.

A year has elapsed since SDLP leader John Hume brought Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams in from isolation to a centre stage position and in that time the only people whose cause has been advanced are the Provsionals.

As the mortars rain down on Heathrow Airport and killers stalk the streets of our cities and towns of our Province, there is a political instability here not known since the IRA hunger strike of 1981.

The Westminster Government has only one option it can take if democracy is to be upheld and real peace returned to this Province. It must move decisively against the terrorists with proper security measures and must make it abundantly clear that the position of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom is inviolable.

Last night's IRA statement served a purpose in that in clarified to our Government the spurious "peace" agenda republicans are working to.

John Major and his Government can no longer afford to be pawns in a process that merely facilitates the terrorists.
