The
peace process, which has been in continual crisis
since the 1998 signing of the Good Friday Agreement,
has faltered once again as devolved power to Stormont
remains suspended. Direct rule from London has been
in place since the British government directly intervened
and suspended the institutions in December 2002. Divisions
within Unionism remain unresolved and presently the
anti agreement Unionists remain in the majority with
in the Ulster Unionist Party and the Democratic Unionist
Party. Elections are also suspended as the result
would favour the anti agreement unionist camp and
thus unravel the whole agreement. Sinn Fein has responded
by retreating to the 1969 nationalist demand of the
basic right to vote. the British and Irish governments
and the pro agreement parties now have to seek ways
to get the peace process can get back on track.
Throughout
the summer Loyalist mobs and death squad paramilitaries
have continued a daily terror campaign against nationalists.
On September 16 Loyalists placed bombs inside the
grounds of two Roman Catholic schools in County Derry.
One at St Marys High in Limavady, the other
was discovered 10 miles away at St Patricks
College, Dungiven. Both devices were live and primed
to go explode. Sectarian attacks on Nationalists are
daily as Loyalism continues its war on the Nationalist
population. Loyalists have subjected Catholic families
living in the Deerpark Road area in North Belfast
to what can only be described as a pogrom. The Police
Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) have refused to
act, to date and has been arrested no one in connection
with these ongoing attacks. This comes as no surprise
to nationalists given that the PSNI is merely a rebadged
version of the old sectarian Royal Ulster Constabulary.
Far
from addressing the nature of the sectarian state
the Good Friday Agreement has merely further institutional
sectarianism and discrimination against Catholics
and Nationalists. The social deprivation/poverty map
reflects the sectarian character of the Northern statelet
with almost 80% of the top 50 most deprived wards
in the North being Catholic. According to the 2001
population census unemployment rates for Catholics
remain 1.8 times higher than Protestants. Tony Kennedy,
Chief executive of the charity Cooperation Ireland
says in the Irish Times on 26 August 26 that there
are more peace walls five years into our peace
process than there when the Agreement was signed,
while surveys show that increasing numbers of people
are living in segregated estates. Yet Sinn Fein
remains wedded to solving these problems within the
framework of the failed and discredited Good Friday
Agreement.
The
campaign for political status and segregation continues
within Maghaberry prison where Republican prisoners
have staged rooftop protests, no wash protests. They
have been denied family visits. Political Status was
removed in 1998 with the signing of the Good Friday
Agreement. The criminalisation of all forms of resistance
to British rule has continued unabated. On July 2nd
relatives and supporters of the protesting prisoners
held an occupation of the headquarters of the Northern
Ireland Prison Service to highlight the political
status campaign. Following its reporting of this protest
the online republican news journal The Blanket has
came under state attack when on July 4th the PSNI
raided the home of its editor Anthony McIntyre seizing
computer equipment and other materials in a raid which
involved 33 jeeps and over 100 officers.
Meanwhile
the Irish state returned to the methods of supergrass
show trials last used against republicans in the 1980s
when in August the alleged leader of the so-called
Real IRA, Michael McKevitt was convicted
of directing terrorism. The non-jury Special
Criminal Court in Dublin sentenced McKevitt to 25
years imprisonment on the evidence of FBI paid informer
David Rupert.
Sinn
Fein chairperson Mitchel McLaughlin revealed his parties
strategy in calling for patience within the Republican
community we may need to be patient until such
a leadership [pro Good Friday Agreement] emerges within
unionism On the role of the British government
McLaughlin believes the hand of history was
never more firmly on Tony Blairs shoulders.
On 7 August Sinn Fein newspaper An Phoblacht expressed
the opinion that The current British Prime Minister
is widely recognised as a man prepared to act on his
conscience. Blair has demonstrated with murderous
effect to the peoples of the Balkans, Afghanistan,
and Iraq that his concience drives him to be an ardent
defender of British imperialism. Any notion that he
and British imperialism can play a progressive role
in Ireland or be an honest broker should be vehemently
opposed.
*
Co operation Ireland is a NGO established in 1979
to promote peace in Ireland. It is a register charity.
The main source of income according to its website
www.cooperationireland.org is the European Union.
Patrons include The British queen and Mary McAleese,
the President of Ireland.
Reproduced
from Fight
Racism! Fight Imperialism! No.175 October November
2003
Index: Current Articles + Latest News and Views + Book Reviews +
Letters + Archives
|