The Irish Republican Army (IRA) must have its disarmament photographed for publication, Nor-thern Ireland's hard-line Protes-tant leader declared after another negotiating session with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
"If you sin publicly, you have to repent publicly," said the Reverend Ian Paisley, emphasizing that the IRA must not conduct its disarmament activities in secret, as has happened three times previously in Northern Ireland's decade-old peace process.
Speaking outside Blair's Downing Street office after hourlong talks on Monday, the 78-year-old Paisley said he wasn't going to back any new peace deal unless it contained the IRA's full disarmament and disbandment.
Blair, who has spent seven years pursuing a lasting settlement for Northern Ireland, had been seeking firm approval Monday from Paisley for a proposed new peace package.
The deal, backed by Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, would require the IRA to disarm fully and Paisley to forge a new coalition with Sinn Fein, the IRA-linked party.
In a potentially significant move, Sinn Fein announced on Monday night that its leader, Gerry Adams, has recommended to senior party activists in Belfast that they back the Anglo-Irish plans.
Sinn Fein said in a statement that Adams had "told the meeting that he believes that Sinn Fein can say yes to the political package as now presented."
Blair and Ahern -- who originally presented their plans to Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionists last month, and have been refining them in consultation with both parties since -- tentatively planned to publish the finished product later this week in Belfast.
The plan requires support from both Sinn Fein, which is backed by most Catholics, and by the Democratic Unionists led by firebrand Paisley, who has spent the past four decades seeking to thwart compromise in Northern Ireland.
Paisley, whose party repre-sents most of the province's British Protestant majority, stressed he wasn't willing to say "yes" or "no" to anything until the IRA ceases to be a threat to Northern Ireland's stability.
Earlier Monday, Adams, a reputed IRA commander since the mid-1970s, said Paisley's demands -- which include publication of photographs of the process of IRA disarmament -- were threatening to torpedo any deal. He said the key question was whether Paisley would ever commit to power-sharing with Catholics.
The Burmese junta has said that detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi is “in good health,” a day after her son said he has received little information about the 80-year-old’s condition and fears she could die without him knowing. In an interview in Tokyo earlier this week, Kim Aris said he had not heard from his mother in years and believes she is being held incommunicado in the capital, Naypyidaw. Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was detained after a 2021 military coup that ousted her elected civilian government and sparked a civil war. She is serving a
‘NO AMNESTY’: Tens of thousands of people joined the rally against a bill that would slash the former president’s prison term; President Lula has said he would veto the bill Tens of thousands of Brazilians on Sunday demonstrated against a bill that advanced in Congress this week that would reduce the time former president Jair Bolsonaro spends behind bars following his sentence of more than 27 years for attempting a coup. Protests took place in the capital, Brasilia, and in other major cities across the nation, including Sao Paulo, Florianopolis, Salvador and Recife. On Copacabana’s boardwalk in Rio de Janeiro, crowds composed of left-wing voters chanted “No amnesty” and “Out with Hugo Motta,” a reference to the speaker of the lower house, which approved the bill on Wednesday last week. It is
‘EAST SHIELD’: State-run Belma said it would produce up to 6 million mines to lay along Poland’s 800km eastern border, and sell excess to nations bordering Russia and Belarus Poland has decided to start producing anti-personnel mines for the first time since the Cold War, and plans to deploy them along its eastern border and might export them to Ukraine, the deputy defense minister said. Joining a broader regional shift that has seen almost all European countries bordering Russia, with the exception of Norway, announce plans to quit the global treaty banning such weapons, Poland wants to use anti-personnel mines to beef up its borders with Belarus and Russia. “We are interested in large quantities as soon as possible,” Deputy Minister of National Defense Pawel Zalewski said. The mines would be part
Seven wild Asiatic elephants were killed and a calf was injured when a high-speed passenger train collided with a herd crossing the tracks in India’s northeastern state of Assam early yesterday, local authorities said. The train driver spotted the herd of about 100 elephants and used the emergency brakes, but the train still hit some of the animals, Indian Railways spokesman Kapinjal Kishore Sharma told reporters. Five train coaches and the engine derailed following the impact, but there were no human casualties, Sharma said. Veterinarians carried out autopsies on the dead elephants, which were to be buried later in the day. The accident site
RSS