Issue 139, Saoirse: Irish Freedom (November, 1998)

              uimh 139 samhain — november 1998 50p usa 1 2 turns full circ • british crown forces in the six counties remain armed and entrenched in areas like south armagh while the provisionals are cajoled into the surrender of arms on october 26 seamus mallon announced formally in the old stormont parliament chamber what everyone knew long before the target date of october 31 would pass without any executive of ministers being formed because of the deadlock over the surrender of arms stormon target date slip i the stormont agreement was not going to clear its first major hurdle no clearer sign of this was evident during october than the ulster unionist party conference on october 24 which unanimously agreed that there would be no place for the provisionals in a new stormont executive without the surrender of arms at the same time gerry kelly of the provisionals stated that north belfast would not be left undefended bearing in mind the huge casualties suffered by the people of north belfast over the past 30 years presumably his statement refers to the arms and war material necessary to defend the area the british the unionists and the dublin administration seem to be relying on general de chastelain's decommissioning body to come up with some formula or action to bridge the gap and see who blinks first he must devise some means of satisfactorily inspecting and verifying the destruction of arms the unionists demand an actual handover of arms in order to further humiliate the provos having seated them in stormont and having them accept the unionist veto and with it british rule in ireland how much more of these progressive surrenders can nationally-minded people in the six counties take are they to be stripped of all means of defence and left entirely defenceless as they were in 1969 we all know what happened to the leadership that allowed that to take place the conclusion to be drawn is that one side is being disarmed while there is no give at all on the british/unionist side the british army rjdrand ruc remain heavily armed and 130,000 licensed weapons are in the hands of unionists but they know that the provisionals are hungry for office under the british crown and are not content like bob mccartney's ukup to remain in opposition or to act as her majesty's loyal opposition meanwhile dr conor cruise o'brien has admitted after more than 25 years that the sovereign british government holds the key to the conflict in the six counties and that all-ireland dialogue should follow action by them something many people have known all along republican sinn fein said this in 1969 and ever since dro'brien censored and opposed this viewpoint down the years the way to break the logjam in the six occupied counties for close on three decades has been through movement by the british government we are glad that conor cruise o'brien has at last publicly acknowledged this basic fact while many people felt that conor cruise o'brien had turned full circle from his anti-partition days of 50 years ago as a higher civil sen ant under sean macbride in the dublin department of external affairs it is necessary to look closer at what he is advocating in his type of united ireland the ruc and 26-county police would be amalgamated bearing in mind that in his proposals the ruc would remain as at present this could only mean the militarisation of the 26-county police was this the reason an irish times interviewer asked did he envisage a 32-county ulster to return to the larger picture with the missing of the october 3 1 target date already some people are beginning to ask if after more than six months the stormont deal is beginning to unravel republican sijoit fein poblachtacli republican f*ox further details isitors carets contact av oif ig 223 sraid pharnell bag x teil 872 9747 fs&xs 872 9757 e-xnail saoirse@iol.ie 7-3 samhain c7-s november poblachtacli