Posted on 04/07/2003 8:18:33 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
Bush brings hopes, high security to N. Ireland
By Alex Richardson
BELFAST, April 7 (Reuters) - Northern Ireland, a weary veteran of high security and dashed hopes, readied for U.S. President George W. Bush on Monday with steel barriers but also fresh optimism that he can help kickstart the peace process.
Bush will begin a summit meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair at Hillsborough Castle outside Belfast later on Monday that will focus chiefly on the war in Iraq.
But there were also hopes his intervention could breathe new life into the British-ruled province's flagging peace process.
Bush has a tough act to follow, however, after his predecessor Bill Clinton brought cheering crowds to the streets and was instrumental in achieving the 1998 Good Friday peace accord on his previous visits to Northern Ireland.
"The fact that the president is coming does not mean that we have a deal done or that we are taking (Northern Irish political) parties' reaction for granted," Blair's official spokesman told reporters in London on Monday.
"But what it does mean is that there is a united will between ourselves, the Irish government and the U.S. government to encourage the parties to take the big steps that will be needed to complete the process."
Blair and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern will return to Belfast on Thursday to present their blueprint for restoring the power-sharing government set up by the 1998 accord.
The Protestant/Catholic assembly set up under that accord, intended to end three decades of sectarian conflict, has been suspended since allegations of Irish Republican Army (IRA) spying erupted last October.
London and Dublin hope the high-profile U.S. involvement will help persuade rival leaders to sign up to their plan, and, crucially, add to the pressure on the IRA to respond quickly by declaring its guerrilla war against British rule over.
Over the weekend, U.S. military transport planes were seen arriving at an airfield outside Belfast, and by Monday a steel barrier had been erected around the venue, in the picturesque village of Hillsborough, south of the Northern Irish capital.
The city was disrupted during the day after a series of bomb warnings at airports and main roads.
Police later declared all the alerts hoaxes, but they caused chaos to flights and traffic, and spread alarm among residents.
Bush, not a fan of foreign travel and on his first visit to Northern Ireland, was due to arrive on Monday around 1700 GMT and go straight to Hillsborough for a working dinner with Blair.
Anti-war protesters from around Ireland have threatened to converge on Hillsborough to voice their opposition to the U.S.-British action in Iraq, but given the scale of the security operation they are unlikely to get close.
The leaders will be joined by Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern on Tuesday, and the U.S. president will also have short meetings with Northern Ireland's key political players.
As on domestic issues, the province's political parties divide along sectarian lines in their views on the Iraq war.
On the Catholic side, Gerry Adams, the leader of the IRA's political ally Sinn Fein, has called the staging of the summit "insensitive" because of opposition to war on the island.
David Trimble, the main Protestant leader, strongly backs the war, and was planning to attend a rally in support of British troops in the Gulf in Belfast on Monday evening.
-- Additional reporting by Katherine Baldwin
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