Now quicker European access

Sinn Fein rejects N. Ireland proposals

McGuinness

January 17, 1998
Web posted at: 1:23 p.m. EDT (1323 GMT)

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (CNN) -- Sinn Fein, the political wing of the outlawed Irish Republican Army, has rejected the latest agenda for peace talks on Northern Ireland, but its chief negotiator said he would continue to attend the multiparty talks on the future of the British province.

"We have not accepted the document as a basis for negotiation, and we intend going to the talks to oppose the document," Martin McGuinness said Saturday.

The British and Irish governments presented the plans earlier this week in an attempt to salvage the talks, which were teetering on the brink of collapse in the wake of a new round of sectarian killings by both sides of the sectarian divide.

The Anglo-Irish proposals called for setting up a new Northern Ireland assembly, an intergovernmental council and a north-south ministerial council to oversee island-wide cooperation on economic, trade and other matters.

Leaders of Northern Ireland's pro-British Protestant parties grudgingly accepted the agenda as a basis for talks.

Even though McGuinness confirmed that Sinn Fein would remain at the negotiating table, he said the proposals had gone down like a "lead balloon" with his party, because they essentially represented a "Unionist agenda" to support Britain.

"Four Catholics have been shot dead by the loyalists," McGuinness told CNN, referring to recent revenge killings that occurred after an IRA splinter faction killed the leader of an outlawed Protestant paramilitary group inside the maximum-security Maze prison near Belfast.

As a result, political parties allied to Protestant paramilitary groups threatened to walk out of the peace talks, prompting Britain's Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam to visit jailed rebels to persuade them to change their minds.

McGuinness said Mowlam and the British government had given in to Protestant blackmail. And he accused Unionist parties of violating the talks' key principle that none of the parties attending use the threat of violence to force the outcome of the negotiations.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Related stories:

• Northern Ireland talks focus on new proposals - January 13, 1998
• British, Irish governments draft power-sharing proposal - January 12, 1998
• N. Ireland talks to resume in wake of more violence - January 11, 1998
• Relative of Sinn Fein leader killed in Belfast - January 11, 1998
• Imprisoned extremists commit to N. Ireland peace process - January 9, 1998
• 'King Rat,' security guard buried in Northern Ireland - December 30, 1997
• N. Ireland tense as funerals held - December 30, 1997
• Protestant group admits retaliation for Wright's killing - December 28, 1997

Related sites:

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

• Sinn Fein - official party page; includes documents, press releases, and party objectives
• The Irish News and Belfast Morning News - Northern Ireland's largest morning newspaper
• ITN Special Report: Peace at Last?
• Ulster Democratic Unionist Party
• The Irish Times
• Royal Ulster Constabulary
• Northern Ireland Information Centre
• Northern Ireland Government
• The Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland
• Northern Ireland: Frameworks for the Future

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.

---

 

---

Sound off on our message boards & chat

© 1998 Cable News Network, Inc.
A Time Warner Company
All Rights Reserved.

Terms under which this service is provided to you.
Read our privacy guidelines.