Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 8, 1994 TAG: 9409090036
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND LENGTH: Medium
On the seventh day of the IRA cease-fire, British Prime Minister John Major said, ``Gradually, it is being made a little clearer that perhaps this is not just a temporary cease-fire.''
``But,'' he added, ``it isn't clear yet.''
In Shannon, Ireland, Vice President Al Gore met with Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds and then indicated he accepted Reynolds' judgment that the IRA's 24-year war against British rule in Northern Ireland was over.
Gore also urged Protestant unionists in Northern Ireland to trust Reynolds in his effort to work out a peaceful solution to the province's sectarian strife.
``He is a man of his word, totally and absolutely. And I would encourage anyone to make a decision on participation on that basis,'' Gore said.
In launching a new effort to find a peaceful solution, Reynolds and Major pledged last December that they would not implement any settlement unless it was acceptable to a majority of Northern Ireland's people.
Once Major is satisfied that the IRA cease-fire is permanent, Britain has promised to meet with the guerrillas' political allies in the Sinn Fein party to discuss terms for joining all-party negotiations.
Britain's top official in the province, Sir Patrick Mayhew, confirmed Wednesday that security has relaxed. ``Certain things are not in place that were,'' said Mayhew, who mentioned that many soldiers have been wearing berets instead of helmets. But in the IRA heartland around Belfast's Falls Road, soldiers had helmets in place as they patrolled residential areas. And the prospect that they may go away makes some Catholics nervous, so long as Protestant ``loyalist'' gunmen remain active.
``There is no doubt that vulnerable nationalist communities require security and protection,'' said Alex Attwood, a Belfast city council member from the Social Democratic and Labor Party, the main party of the province's Roman Catholic minority.
``That's why, whilst we've asked for a reduction in army presence, we've asked that the army sit on the exit and access roads ... to provide a degree of security from loyalist roaming attacks,'' Attwood said.
Martin McGuinness, the deputy leader of Sinn Fein, said he saw no evidence of reduced security operations by police or the 18,000 British soldiers in the province.
``On the contrary, the continuation of raids and arrests, the saturation of nationalist areas ... and the closure of re-opened border roads, is evidence of a no-change policy by the British government,'' he said.
On the Protestant side, Peter Robinson, deputy leader of the hard-line Democratic Unionist Party, condemned any moves to ease back on security. ``The folly of this dangerously incompetent government beggars belief,'' Robinson said.
by CNB