The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.60/No.23           June 10, 1996 
 
 
Sinn Fein Prepares For Elections, All-Party Talks  

BY JONATHAN SILBERMAN

BELFAST, Northern Ireland - Sinn Fein will show up at the venue of the all-party talks on the future of Northern Ireland that will start here June 10, said Gerry Adams, the party's president. He was on the campaign trail for elections that will be held May 30 to choose 110 members to a forum and negotiation teams for the talks.

"We seek national self-determination and the unity and independence of Ireland as a sovereign state," Adams spelt out in an article in the May 23 Irish Times. "As part of this we want to see the end of British rule in Ireland and the creation of a new Ireland which reflects the diversity of all the people of this island."

"Tens of thousands of citizens will vote for us," the republican leader said. "We ask only that they be accorded the same rights as those who vote for other parties."

Predictions among Sinn Fein members that the party's vote will hold firm appeared confirmed by the response to Adams as he canvassed the Lower Falls area of Belfast May 25. "I want all- party talks," said one resident, "but you can't rely on the British."

"I don't think they will let Sinn Fein sit down to talks but we will give Sinn Fein the mandate," added another.

The British government continues to stick by its demand for a new Irish Republican Army (IRA) cease-fire as a precondition for Sinn Fein's inclusion in the negotiations. Prime Minister John Major has received backing for this position from all parties in the Westminster parliament. Mo Mowlam, the British Labour Party's Northern Ireland spokesperson, said that if the IRA army council reinstated its cease-fire "five minutes" before the deadline of midnight June 9, Sinn Fein should be included.

The IRA has said it will not call a cease-fire unless the talks include a point on ending partition and are not limited to an internal settlement in the six counties of Northern Ireland, and the preconditions on republican participation are removed.

`Major has no right to a say in Ireland'
On the campaign trail with Adams was another Sinn Fein candidate, Alex Maskey. "The elections are not wanted by anyone in the nationalist community," Maskey said in an interview. "In fact they are seen as divisive when we are trying to build consensus.... John Major has no democratic right to have any say in Ireland." Despite the exclusion of Sinn Fein from preparatory talks, the Irish republican party has "set the agenda" for the elections, Maskey emphasized.

Talks between the London and Dublin governments have been dominated by the issue of Sinn Fein's inclusion, following Adams's recent statement that "Sinn Fein in the context of proper all- party talks will sign up with all of the other parties to the Mitchell Report and principles." The two governments had insisted that acceptance of the report by former U.S. senator George Mitchell, who was asked by London to prepare a report on decommissioning of IRA weapons, was a condition for participating in the all-party talks.

"If the British government, with its disastrous record of involvement in our country, with its army of occupation, with its repressive apparatus; if the loyalists with their record; or the unionists with their record; if all of these parties can sign up to Mitchell then so can Sinn Fein," Adams wrote.

Days of talks between London and Dublin have to date failed to produce a united response. According to the May 26 Sunday Independent, however, unionist parties anticipate that "the two governments will cobble together a makeshift agreement ... which will ensure Sinn Fein participation in talks."

Meanwhile, the elections have exposed a growing crisis among the unionist groups. No fewer than 17 parties are contesting the election on an explicitly pro-union platform. Six others accept the union with Britain as a given and raise no demands to challenge it. There has been a splintering of existing unionist parties as new organizations have been established for the election.

In a break with recent practice, the British Conservative Party is contesting the election in its own right. Sharp exchanges have been reported between leaders of different pro-union groups. A proposal by the newly established UK Unionist Party for a "pan- unionist alliance" for the election never got off the ground.

Ian Paisley, leader of the rightist Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), spelt out the fears of many in the face of this growing weakness. "If the message after May 30 goes around the world that John Hume's [Social Democratic and Labour Party] is the largest party in Northern Ireland, then the union is over and people better realize that," he warned, urging support for the DUP.

Tainted equipment used for convictions
As the election date approached the British government was still reeling from the consequences of revelations that forensic evidence used to convict a number alleged IRA volunteers in explosives-related cases was faulty. A centrifuge machine used for detecting Semtex explosives was found to have been contaminated. It had not been fully cleaned and recalibrated since 1989.

Michael Mansfield, a prominent lawyer, has called for all the convictions in which evidence from the contaminated centrifuge was presented be overturned. Estimates vary as to the number of cases involved from 12 to 38. Other commentators have speculated that if cases in Northern Ireland were additionally involved the figure might well be over 100.

Meanwhile, London announced the transfer of republican prisoner Patrick Kelly to the Republic of Ireland. Kelly is now suffering from terminal cancer, a condition supporters say was almost certainly caused by his lack of effective medical treatment in prison. A broad campaign has demanded Kelly's release. The Dublin government had called for Kelly's transfer to a prison nearer to his family and the British government finally acceded to his transfer from Northern Ireland to Portlaoise prison, 50 miles from Dublin.

Ann Fiander from Manchester contributed to this article.  
 
 
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