THE Sinn Fein president has described the Belfast Agreement as "clearly in crisis". In his Easter address at Dublin's Glasnevin Cemetery, Mr Gerry Adams also said that he would do all in his power to find a way out of the current impasse. He said the confidence of the people of the North in the peace process came from the continuation of the ceasefires rather than from any great confidence in the political process.
The majority of people, said Mr Adams, "recognise the silence of these guns as a sign of the IRA's commitment to the search for a lasting and democratic peace settlement".
About 800 people turned out to hear Mr Adams deliver the annual address of commemoration for the Easter Rising of 1916. They had marched from the GPO in O'Connell Street and were also addressed by Mr Sean Crowe, a candidate in June's European elections, and by Ogra Sinn Fein's Ms Lynn Gallagher. On decommissioning, Mr Adams said the provisions of the Belfast Agreement were "quite unambiguous . . . There is an obligation on all parties to honour the commitment to work constructively and in good faith with the International Commission and to use any influence they may have to secure disarmament".
Sinn Fein has done this, he said, adding that his party had "no weapons to decommission".
"Sinn Fein has made it clear," he said, "both privately and publicly, that we cannot deliver the demand for IRA weapons, no matter how it is presented."
Describing the current situation as a "unionist impasse", he said it had been created by people who for decades had been used to exercising a veto over political progress. "That has to change."
No one could impose obligations or commitments beyond what was agreed on Good Friday last year. It would take a massive effort on the part of all the parties to move the process forward. And for Sinn Fein's part, he said he had assured the leader of the Ulster Unionists, Mr David Trimble, that he would do his best to find a way out of the current deadlock.
"The way forward proposed in the governments' declaration, as explained to me, may have merit, but it may also be counter-productive if it amounts to an ultimatum to armed groups.
"And if it removes the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement from the political parties and the two governments, this would not only put the declaration outside the agreement itself, it would also be a failure of politics . . . The implementation of the Good Friday Agreement is the bedrock of this phase of the peace process."
If the governments were now serious, he continued, the blockage of decommissioning had to be removed, as it "never was a precondition", and the d'Hondt procedures should be triggered.
Addressing the party's "unionists neighbours" he said he wanted to reassure them. He said it was a source "of deep frustration" that the unionists' political representatives "do not respect the democratic mandate of Sinn Fein". "Despite this," he continued, "we will do our best to remove any difficulties you may have and to understand your fears and feelings".
He also sought to reassure republicans, and perhaps the biggest cheer he received was early in his address, when he said he wanted to pay tribute to the IRA "which has shown great discipline in the face of provocation". Urging republicans to hold their nerve, he said Sinn Fein intended to manage this phase of the peace process, "so that we emerge with real progress in the search for peace. We will come out of this phase strong and united . .. The republican position will only be advanced by clear, strategic thinking and by intelligent, disciplined activists building our political strength."
