UK and Ireland begin review of Good Friday Agreement

Tuesday, 3 February 2004 12:00 AM

The British and Irish governments are leading a review of the Good Friday agreement today, in an effort to kick-start the peace process.

Northern Ireland Secretary of State Paul Murphy and the Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Brian Cowen are leading a meeting at Stormont of the main political parties, which is expected to run until Easter.

The Northern Ireland Assembly was suspended in October 2002 after allegations were made that the IRA was gathering intelligence at the Stormont offices. The review was planned in 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed.

An agreement will be hard to reach as all the parties have different views on the way forward. Sinn Fein and the SDLP believe that there is no way the Good Friday agreement can be renegotiated and therefore the review should be swift.

The Ulster Unionist Party believes that the review should look at the reasons why the Assembly was suspended in 2002, while the Democratic Unionist Party wants to see a complete renegotiation of the peace agreement.

Britain and Ireland's problems were made worse after the DUP and Sinn Fein emerged as the two leading parties in the last Northern Ireland Assembly Elections last November.

A statement from DUP Deputy Leader Peter Robinson warned that no agreement would be reached with Sinn Fein unless the IRA decommissioned all of its weapons.

Mr Robinson commented: "Not only will Sinn Fein not be given entry to an executive before decommissioning all its weapons but all the other paraphernalia of terrorism will have to go as well. The DUP will not share power with terrorist representatives."

David Trimble, former Northern Ireland First Minister and leader of the UUP, stated that the main reason for the failure to reach an agreement is the issue of weapons held by paramilitary organisations.

The US Special Envoy to Northern Ireland, Mitchell Reiss, met with Paul Murphy on Monday and he is to talk to the political parties later today. He will meet the British and Irish government's in London and Dublin later on in the week.

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