Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Belfast talks halt without solution Date: Wed, 11 Nov 92 14:23:38 EST Message-ID: \SE A;WORLD \SS (WS) \HD Belfast talks halt without solution \BY FROM COMBINED DISPATCHES \DT BELFAST BELFAST - The three-year effort to strike a political compromise in divided Northern Ireland broke up yesterday with antagonism and little common ground in sight. British and Irish government ministers called it an "intermission" after six months of intense private talks and held out hope of more discussions in the spring. But some Protestant supporters of British rule declared the process dead. "This is not an intermission - this is a burial," said the Rev. Ian Paisley, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, after the talks in the old Parliament building at Stormont Castle in east Belfast. "It all adds up to a very sad Christmas present for the people of Northern Ireland," said John Alderdice, whose centrist Alliance party supports Northern Ireland's union with Britain and draws both Catholic and Protestant support. "Agreement was possible. It was there for the taking," he said. The four participating political parties - three committed to British rule and one advocating much closer ties with the Irish Republic - said they would meet informally about issues of common concern, notably economic matters. While no one expected the talks, begun in January 1990, to bring an end to political and sectarian violence, the secretive negotiations sought to find a political system acceptable to most of Northern Ireland's Protestants and Catholics. But a formula capable of reconciling British unionism and Irish nationalism proved too elusive. Irish Foreign Minister David Andrews said his government - two weeks away from a national election - could consider amending the constitution only as part of an overall agreement. Britain has directly governed Northern Ireland since 1972, three years into a cycle of violence that claimed more than 3,000 lives. The dilemma remains how to house under one political roof two apparently exclusive aspirations - those of Protestant unionists who consider themselves British and Roman Catholics who consider themselves Irish. Sinn Fein, the legal political party that supports the outlawed Irish Republican Army's violent campaign against British rule, was excluded from the talks. Delegates loyal to Britain hoped to end the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement, which gave the Irish Republic a say in Northern Ireland's affairs. They pulled out of talks because British and Irish ministers planned to meet in Belfast next week for a session required under that agreement. Meanwhile, across town in Republican east Belfast, the IRA signaled yesterday that it had enough explosives and guerrillas in place for a major pre-Christmas bombing blitz in London. "We are in a position when it suits us to increase the pressure. Rest assured, that will occur," an IRA spokesman told Reuters news agency in a rare interview that provided insights into the military tactics of one of the world's most experienced guerrilla groups. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM