BY PAUL DAVIES

LONDON - "It is with frustration and a sense of anger that Sinn Fein views the opening of talks today in Belfast," said Belfast City Sinn Fein Councilor Pat McGeown June 10. He was addressing a London press conference at the House of Commons, on the opening day of talks organized by the British and Irish government at Stormont Castle in Northern Ireland. McGeown began a speaking tour of Britain as other Sinn Fein leaders demanded their inclusion in the talks from outside the gates of Stormont.

On the third day of talks, two right-wing parties, the Democratic Unionists and UK Unionists, stormed out of the talks to protest the appointment of former U.S. Senator George Mitchell as chair.

Explaining Sinn Fein's position, McGeown said, "We and our people are angry because while the British government declared that an elective process `would lead immediately... to the convening of all party negotiations.' Here we are after an election with the British government denying the democratic outcome."

Speaking alongside McGeown at Westminster June 10, Labour MP Tony Benn said "to exclude [Sinn Fein] would be to disenfranchise all those who freely chose to vote in the recent Northern Ireland Forum elections.... The delay in advancing the peace process since the cease-fire has been due to the failure of the British government to respond to the opportunity."

Later that day, Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams, chief negotiator Martin McGuinness, and 15 other elected Sinn Fein officials were excluded from the opening of the talks by the British and Irish governments on the grounds that the Irish Republican Army had not declared a cease-fire. They received a record high of 15.5 percent of the vote in the May 30 elections, the fourth highest vote among the different parties.

The elections were imposed by the British government in order to select representatives to participate in the June 10 talks. Attending the negotiations are nine parties, including two aligned with the rightist Loyalist death squads.

On June 5 an IRA statement explained it "will not be decommissioning its weapons.... It will never leave nationalist areas defenseless this side of a final settlement."

Prior to the meeting leaders of various unionist (pro- British) parties condemned the decision of the British and Irish governments to appoint former U.S. senator Mitchell as chairperson of the talks. Deputy leader of the Ulster Unionists John Taylor complained, "This appointment is the equivalent of an American Serb presiding over talks on the future of Croatia." Democratic Unionist leader Ian Paisley said Mitchell would be "some sort of Pope sitting over all the talks."

Speaking in London, Sinn Fein leader McGeown pointed to how the British government had always "resisted the internationalization of the conflict in Ireland." The appointment of Mitchell, he said, "shows a sign of weakening on this question."

The first day of the talks turned into a debate over who would chair and what would be on the agenda. Paisley threatened that his party would walk out if Mitchell was in the chair. In response, after Prime Minister John Major's address, the chair was handed to Northern Ireland secretary Patrick Mayhew. The question of the chair remained unresolved at the end of the session. The speeches of the British and Irish prime ministers were meant to be shown live on BBC, but the British government pulled the plug a half-hour before, fearing this wrangle would become a focus for TV coverage.

Instead the Independent reports, "While the Prime Minister was opening the talks, the cameras instead feasted on the strong simple image of the republicans being denied a place at the table."

In response to their exclusion, Adams and other Sinn Fein leaders fielded questions and interviews for several hours at the gates of Stormont. Adams issued the speech he had planned to make at the opening of the talks, entitled `Transforming Hope Into Reality.' In the speech Adams outlined Sinn Fein's objectives. "It is our intention to put the union (with Britain) on the agenda. Negotiations are an area of struggle," he said. "The claim of the British government to sovereignty in Ireland, is the key matter which must be addressed in any negotiation." Adams added that "the whole issue of demilitarization needs to be resolved. This includes the release of political prisoners, disarmament, policing, the administration of justice and an end to repressive legislation."

In other developments, three days before the opening of the talks, British police seized five people in South Armagh, Northern Ireland, and one in London who they claimed were responsible for the February 9 bombing of Canary Wharf in the British capital. By June 9 they were forced to release two of those detained. Just weeks before, London admitted that forensic evidence used to convict several Irish prisoners had been extracted in a contaminated machine.  
 
 
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