Britain's and Ireland's prime ministers on Thursday announced
deadlines for recalling the Northern Ireland Assembly in mid May
and setting up a power-sharing executive by November.
In a joint press conference in the city of Armagh, Northern
Ireland, Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern said the peace process in
Northern Ireland had developed greatly since the devolved
government at Stormont was suspended in October 2002. They planned
to recall the Belfast assembly in May and give politicians six
weeks to form a decision-making executive.
The two leaders have set an absolute deadline of November 24 for
the re-establishment of a power-sharing administration between the
Democratic Unionist Party, representing much of the province's
Protestant majority who favor unity with Britain, and the Irish
Republican Army (IRA)'s political ally Sinn Fein -- the dominant
nationalist party who supports a united Ireland.
Failure of the re-establishment would result in the deferral of
the assembly and cancellation of salaries and allowances of
assembly members. The British and Irish governments would together
take over much of the running of the province, Blair and Ahern
announced.
In the announcement, both Blair and Ahern acknowledged the
difficulties facing them. These have been compounded by the murder
of Denis Donaldson, Sinn Fein's former head of administration at
the Stormont government buildings in Belfast. Donaldson admitted
last year that he had been a double agent for British intelligence
for two decades.
Ahern said Donaldson's murder was a reminder of Ireland's
"brutal past". "Time has come to move the peace process on," he
said.
Blair said he would not let the murder derail the political
process. The killing made it "even more important that we stand
firm on the peace process," he said.
Speaking before the announcement of the peace process timetable,
British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Peter Hain said
that he did not expect the deal to be completed by mid May, but
there had to be an agreement well before the end of the year.
(Xinhua News Agency April 7, 2006)
