Trimble: Make anti-terror stance as clear in Northern Ireland as in Afghanistan

Associated Press ^ | Wednesday, October 10, 2001

[JohnHuang2]

BLACKPOOL, England, Oct 10, 2001 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- Northern Ireland's top Protestant politician said Wednesday that Britain's opposition to terrorism should be as clear in his province as it is in Afghanistan.

Speaking at the Conservative Party's annual conference, Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble praised Prime Minister Tony Blair's support for the U.S.-led strikes at the networks of Osama bin Laden, suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

"If the response to bin Laden and (Afghanistan's ruling) Taliban is clear-cut, unfortunately at home in Northern Ireland, the position is not so clear," Trimble said. "The problem is uncertainty and the government's reluctance to grasp the nettle."

Trimble resigned in July as the Protestant leader of Northern Ireland's power-sharing assembly to protest the Irish Republican Army's failure to disarm. He pledged to withdraw his party's ministers from the joint Catholic-Protestant government - effectively collapsing it - by next week.

"I and my party are now bringing matters to a head in order to force (IRA-linked party) Sinn Fein and the IRA to decide," he told the Tories, who have long had warm ties with his Ulster Unionists.

"We are not doing this just cynically to exploit the mood after the 11th of September," he said. "We have been steadily, patiently building the pressure. ... The problem is that the terrorists have tried to have it both ways."

Tensions in Northern Ireland have flared recently to their worst levels in years, and the standoff over IRA weapons decommissioning has caused a crisis for the 1998 Good Friday peace accord.

Trimble said he wants to see more political options available to Northern Irish voters, and urged Britain's main parties to raise their profiles in the province.

Parties there are based almost solely on religious or community identity and on views about the province's relationship with Britain and the Republic of Ireland, he said.

"The present structures prevent people in Northern Ireland participating in British national politics," he said. "Taxation, expenditure, foreign policy, defense are exclusively determined in London. Unless there is a sense of involvement and accountability on those issues, the electorate in Northern Ireland will not be satisfied."

Copyright 2001 Associated Press, All rights reserved

[MadIvan]

Trimble said he wants to see more political options available to Northern Irish voters, and urged Britain's main parties to raise their profiles in the province

This bit I find very interesting - sounds like Trimble may want to merge with the Tories. The UUP is welcome, they are hard right wing.

Regards, Ivan

[lavaroise]

The IRA is a shame and a sham, considering that the British have shown time and again that they are capable to allow independence with peaceful resolutions (India etc. comes to mind). THe IRA is only there to monopolize weapons and power, to make a small Cuba in the heart of Europe.

[MadIvan]

THe IRA is only there to monopolize weapons and power, to make a small Cuba in the heart of Europe.

And indeed Gerry is still due to visit his old pal, Fidel. I hope President Bush is paying attention.

Regards, Ivan

[Colosis]

Not once in Trimbles speech did he mention the ongoing protestant pogroms against the Catholic population. The murder of journalists, daily screaming abuse at catholic children going to school and nightly pipe bomb attacks seem to belong exclusively to the Loyalist side, but this obviously not terrorism to Trimble, Paisley and their mouthpieces.

The IRA are on ceasefire for years, imperfect as that may be, but hard to believe it's still holding given the provocation the catholic community are enduring. I believe that decommissioning is a red herring now, although I hope it happens. I don't think that the Unionists are going to pass over this dreamboat opportunity to demonize half the voting Catholic population while the henchmen in their midst terrorize with complete impunity and no backlash to worry about.

[MadIvan]

The murder of journalists, daily screaming abuse at catholic children going to school and nightly pipe bomb attacks seem to belong exclusively to the Loyalist side, but this obviously not terrorism to Trimble, Paisley and their mouthpieces.

Sorry, Sinn Fein lackey boy. Trimble did denounce all that. He and Paisley called for a clean up of the Loyalist terrorists too. Course you wouldn't be paying attention to that, in your Fenian desire to demonise all that is Loyalist, now would you?

No Protestant paramilitary group has access to power like Sinn Fein / IRA has. Either they choose politics or the gun. They can't have it both ways and hold Northern Ireland to ransom whenver things don't go their own way.

Ivan

[Colosis]

"No Protestant paramilitary group has access to power like Sinn Fein / IRA has."

This is the lie the unionist population has been living for a generation now. Do you think that Willie Mc Crea sharing platforms with Billy Wright or "Third Force" mean nothing? There have always being terrorist tendencies within some strands of Unionism. It's not all one-way traffic in NI, and the present situation bears that out.

Sinn Fein lackey boy - Haven’t heard that in a long time - OUCH!

[MadIvan]

The ruling council of the Ulster Unionist Party is not the ruling council of the Red Hand Defenders. The ruling council of the Democratic Unionist Party is not the ruling council of the Ulster Volunteer Force. The ruling council of Sinn Fein is the high command of the IRA. Any questions?

Ivan

[Colosis]

Try this Link to learn more about you beloved DUP. One question, who represents all the loyalist violence at the moment - no one?

[MadIvan]

Right, like that is an unbiased source. Still doesn't deal with the main point - none of the Unionist parties in government have the same links with the paramilitaries that Sinn Fein has with the IRA. You cannot refute this because it is the truth.

The closest to that arrangement is the Progressive Unionist Party and they are not in power.

Ivan

[MadIvan]

From your article:

Links between the UVF and UDA-UFF and the DUP have now, for the most part, been severed.

Sinn Fein / IRA cannot say the same.

Ivan

[Colosis]

Sinn Fein has always denied their links with paramilitaries, but relentless pressure from politicians and media have shown this not to be true. I wish the same pressure were applied to the Unionists to discover their links with terrorists, past and present. If what you say about the PUP is true, then 2% of unionists are able to cause all the mayhem that's going on right now. If that's the case, then the response from 98% of unionists is very mute. All I hear from unionists are cries for IRA decommissioning.

[MadIvan]

All I hear from unionists are cries for IRA decommissioning.

That is because the major Unionist parties have cut off their links to paramilitaries, if they ever had any to cut off. The same cannot be said for Sinn Fein / IRA. If they want to be in politics, give up the gun. If they want to be terrorists, prepare to eat hot death - it is their choice. But there is no halfway house.

Ivan

[Colosis]

Does "Eat Hot Death" apply to the UFF, UDA, LVF, RHD? And if the IRA don't decommission at the behest of organizations currently involved in murdering journalists, and throwing blast bombs at 4 year old catholic schoolgirls, do you really think that the US are going to commit our troops to Ireland to do a job you brits couldn't do for 30 years? Hey, enjoy your propaganda coup, but it ain't going to happen!

[MadIvan]

The IRA should disarm because that is precisely what people voted for in the Good Friday Agreement. Nothing more, nothing less. If you can't accept that, tough.

Ivan

[MadIvan]

So far as I am concerned, Sinn Fein / IRA has pointed a gun at my city of London for far too long. Now that Sinn Fein / IRA came out against military retaliation by the Americans, helped FARC and gave comfort to Muslim fundamentalists in Turkey, I am sure our good friend President Bush will work to ensure they are reduced to throwing rocks. And that is PRECISELY what I hope for.

The principle of consent is non-negotiable. So long as NI has a Unionist majority, sod off.

Ivan

[Wm Bach]

We definitely should treat NI like Afghanistan. We should lose a couple of nuetron bombs in Northern Ireland and take out both the Unionists and IRA. The peaceful folk in the south can then move north and occupy the still-standing buildings once the rads have ticked down.

[Ockham]

America has to take a fair bit of the responsibiity for the terror in Nothern Ireland. The Unionist side has to take blame as well.

But overall it is the funding of terrorist violence by sentimental Democrat ratbags of Irish descent which is to be condemned most. They of course don't live there and can take enormous satisfaction fom afar. Its really old Tammany rubbish. The poison released by the violence means that no resolution is possible. The IRA view is violent clatrap. The killing of the innocents has been obscene.

Strangely enough, Ulster protestants (I'm not related to them) have been the most successful group on North America - more Presidents of this origin than any other. America has to get serious about stopping the export of Terror to their closest ally by donation or Hollywood movies which glamourise the IRA. Yeah sure they're all misunderstood Brad Pitts.

[Norn Iron]

Trail leads to Ireland

Ireland, it appears was the centre for one of Bin Laden's 'charity' operations.

Back in December 1999, following a tip off, Irish police arrested a Bin Laden associate. They found incriminating evidence, evidence which was embarrassing to Ireland, so they let Hamid Aich go within 24 hours when they could have held him for 48 hours. Aich rapidly disappeared - much to the relief of the Irish authorities.

In the war against terrorism, Bin Laden knew a safe haven, a soft touch, when he saw one!

[Norn Iron]

You seem keen that Catholics in Northern Ireland should be demonised. Why?

Trimble dealt with the problem of terrorists in government in NI at a time when national leaders have declared war on terrorism. He was perfectly entitled to point out this contradiction.

He didn't refer to terrorist activity by ALL the terrorist groups that has continued since the Agreement was signed in 1998: racketeering, shootings, attacks on the police with petrol bombs, boulders and live ammunition, etc.

He didn't refer to the decision by London and Dublin 'not to ruffle paramilitary feathers' in case it would damage the peace process. That is why 'law and order' in some places is directed by the respective terrorists without police intervention.

He didn't refer to the problems in Ardoyne where school girls and pensioners are terrorised on a daily and nightly basis.

You didn't tell us that Brendan Mailey who helped set up the Holy Cross School parent's group earlier this year to provoke the loyalist reaction from Glenbryn is a cop killer. He went up to a policeman in a gas/petrol station some years ago and shot him down in cold blood. This is the man who frog-marches the parents and little girls through the baying loyalists.

It's all based on the corruption of the Martin Luther King phrase: "Let the world see who the real aggressor is". The tactic is simple. Provoke your opponent to attack you in a frenzied rage and make sure the cameras are there and pointing in the right direction.

Quentin Davies, the new Conservative spokesman for Northern Ireland, fell for the sting but Brice Dickson, head of the NIHRC, a native was not taken in. He visited the scene but refused to participate in the terrorist 'photo-opportunity' by walking with the little girls.