UUC must back any new plan - Trimble
From IRISH TIMES February 14th, 2000
By CLARE MURPHY
The UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, has pledged that no decision will be taken
on the party's re-entry into a power-sharing executive in the North unless
prior consent is given by the 860-strong ruling Ulster Unionist Council.
Speaking after the meeting of the council on Saturday, Mr Trimble also announced
his intention to create a "small but broadly-based working group" from the
party to outline issues for a second review of the implementation of the
Belfast Agreement. He confirmed that the British government's decision to
change the name of the RUC would be challenged by the party in the review.
Following last week's suspension of the political institutions, Mr Trimble
said his party's principal objective was "to see a return of devolution; to see the administration re-formed but reformed on a sound basis". The
date of the weekend meeting was set by Mr Trimble last November to allow
the council to review progress on IRA decommissioning, which he claims was
to have occurred by January 31st under the agreement reached by the parties
during the Mitchell review. "We gave other people an opportunity to fulfil their obligations under the agreement in terms of being committed to peace and democracy. And that's when we jumped. We jumped first and it ended up we jumped alone." Mr Trimble said it was unreasonable to ask the UUP to
accept the latest decommissioning report from Gen. John de Chastelain as
a basis for proceeding with the devolved power-sharing administration. "Even in the last few days and minutes of this process they were still scrabbling around in ways on which I am not altogether clear because no clear proposals have been made to me or, I think, to anybody else," he said. After meeting Sinn Féin's Mr Martin McGuinness on Friday and later speaking on the phone
with the Sinn Féin president, Mr Gerry Adams, neither had given him details
of the proposals, he said, adding that a year's extension of the May 22nd
deadline for disarmament was unacceptable. |
