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Main pro-British party to join N. Ireland talks

Trimble and Maginnis in Belfast September 17, 1997
Web posted at: 8:42 a.m. EDT (1242 GMT)

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (CNN) -- Northern Ireland's main Protestant party said it would eventually take part in peace talks to expose what it considers the "fascist character" of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA. But the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) said it would not sit down for Wednesday's round of talks.

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble made the statement shortly before the third day of Northern Irish peace talks, which for the first time include nationalist Sinn Fein, was to get under way at Belfast's Stormont Castle.

Trimble said he was only at Stormont Wednesday for talks with Britain's Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam, emphasizing he would not attend the day's round-table talks on the future of the British province.

What's at Stake
At stake in this week's talks is the success or failure of years of Anglo-Irish diplomacy, which has been aimed at getting pro-British unionists and Irish nationalists to forge a lasting settlement for Northern Ireland. About 3,200 people have been killed in the decades-long conflict in the British province.

"We are not here to negotiate with them (Sinn Fein) but to confront them, to expose their fascist character," Trimble said.

The Ulster Unionist Party, which wants continued British rule in Northern Ireland, accused Sinn Fein and the IRA of involvement in Tuesdays' bomb attack in Markethill, near Belfast.

Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack, which caused severe damage to a police station. The IRA, which restored its unilateral cease-fire in July, denied that it was involved.

Wreckage from car bomb that exploded near a police station

The Ulster Unionists have boycotted the Stormont talks so far because of their concerns that the IRA will not abide by the principles underlying the talks.

These so-called Mitchell principles, named after the chairman of the talks, former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, say that paramilitary groups should hand in at least some of their weapons parallel to the talks.

The Ulster Unionists also said they did not trust Sinn Fein's pledge to abide by another key Mitchell principle: to abstain from violence as a means to political ends.

Trimble again underlined his party's position on Northern Ireland Wednesday. "With Ulster Unionists at the table, there will be no united Ireland. There will be no joint sovereignty, no joint authority actual or disguised," he said.

"We are not prepared to tolerate Sinn Fein being portrayed as the party of peace and the Unionists as the problem," he said.

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams called on the Ulster Unionists to stop the "play-acting" and take part in the talks.

"Their (UUP) strategy is to wreck this process. They are mandated to sit down with us. We want the Unionists involved. They are very welcome," Adams said.

In the wake of Tuesday's bomb attack, Mitchell urged the province's leaders "not to give in to those who use these reprehensible and immoral tactics." And Northern Ireland's Foreign Secretary Ray Burke commented "It is obvious that those who planted the bomb are attempting to damage this talks process and the inclusive nature of it."

Reuters contributed to this report.

 
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