Deadline looms for N.Irish self-rule breakthrough
Source: Reuters
By Kevin Smith DUBLIN, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Northern Ireland's feuding political parties meet on Friday to take what London and Dublin hope will be a critical step towards restoring self-government in the British-ruled province. However, the latest in a series of deadlines to reach agreement in a painstaking process remains fraught, with the province's biggest opposing pro-British and pro-Irish parties still deadlocked over core issues. The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which wants to remain part of the UK, and arch-enemy Sinn Fein, which favours a united Ireland, must indicate who they would nominate to the top posts in a power sharing assembly mooted to take over the province's affairs next year. "If people don't turn up, if people don't give that indication, then we will all draw our conclusions and I think the conclusions will be very bleak indeed," Britain's Northern Ireland minister Peter Hain told parliament this week. Hain's stance on the finality of the Nov. 24 deadline has softened as the parties' entrenched positions emerged. Having previously stated he would shut the Belfast-based assembly for good if there was no agreement, he now appears to be prepared to settle for signals the latest plan -- drawn up at St Andrews in Scotland last month -- can be kept on the rails. "Tomorrow is not the point at which people have to finally decide whether to go into government but the point where people do have to decide whether they are serious about going forward," a spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair said as last-minute talks took place in London on Thursday. A show of willingness by the DUP and Sinn Fein would give impetus to a timetable that envisages a transitional assembly from Friday leading to an election on March 6 and the resumption of self-rule on March 26. A collapse of the St Andrews process would mean a continuation of direct rule from London but with greater input from Dublin -- an unpalatable prospect for most unionists. The previous assembly, set up under 1998's Good Friday agreement to end 30 years of violence in which 3,600 people died, was suspended in 2002 after a dispute over the activities of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) guerrilla group. A disagreement between the DUP and the IRA's political ally Sinn Fein over policing remains the main stumbling block in the current process, with the DUP unwilling to commit to power sharing until its rival has agreed to support the rule of law.
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