Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 20, 1995 TAG: 9503220038
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Only hours before his scheduled visit, Adams pronounced that his organization, the political arm of the violent Irish Republican Army, has "no authority or control over arms." That's nonsense.
Sinn Fein may have no legal line of authority over an illegal group, but surely Adams has a great deal of influence over the IRA. If not, what is he doing arranging ministerial-level talks between his party and the British government? Adams, in fact, gained his invitation to the White House - and Clinton's permission to raise funds while in the United States - only after indicating a willingness to put the decommissioning of IRA arms on the negotiating table.
His hedging in the course of such a delicate peace initiative, however, should not greatly dim the prospects that burn brightly in Northern Ireland.
After several months of a cease fire - several months without bombings, executions, army roadblocks, random street searches - a public that has been yearning for peace is all the more eager for an end to the fighting.
Americans are largely flummoxed by the kind of sectarian warfare seen in nations, such as the former Yugoslavia, of which so many of us have so little knowledge. Most, though, are aware of at least a bit of Ireland's bitter history if for no other reason than the impact it had on this nation, bringing as it did a wave of immigrants fleeing starvation during the Great Famine 150 years ago.
The Irish, whose land had been confiscated hundreds of years before by the English, had been allowed to rent back only tiny plots and to grow only one crop for domestic consumption: the potato. When a blight destroyed the potato crop four years in a row, the English government did nothing, allowing 1 million Irish to die.
It was in this soil that a revolutionary group, the Fenians, took root, producing the seed of today's IRA and its bloody, 25-year terror campaign for unification with the Irish Republic.
A historic draft peace treaty framed by the British and Irish governments offers hope for putting to rest hundreds of years of grievous wrongs. The process is fragile, to say the least.
President Clinton has acted with unaccustomed fortitude and resolution in encouraging a role for Sinn Fein in this process. Adams could - and should - repay him with equal courage in discussing terms for a surrender of arms.
Ulster's Unionists, fearful that a settlement would lead eventually to Northern Ireland separating from the United Kingdom and joining Ireland, could topple the process unilaterally. They, too, will have to be able to set aside a taste for obstructionist terrorism. And to set aside suspicions born of atrocities that are unlikely ever to be forgotten.
The rubble of a society that was once Yugoslavia provides horrible testimony to why, in the name of peace, past offenses must be forgiven.
by CNB