ASKED whether he thought there would have to be some electoral mechanism such as the election of negotiating teams before people could sit face to face around the negotiating table, Senator Mitchell said
"That judgment is beyond the scope of our remit. Therefore we hold and express no view on it. What happens with this report, and what happens next in the process, is of course up to the parties themselves.
"Our hope is a simple one that in some way this will contribute to progress. We do not believe, and we made clear both in the report and in our oral remarks today, that in and of itself this report is going to solve the entire, problem. But we believe and we hope very much that it will be useful in enabling those involved to move forward."
Asked if he believed Mr John Major was willing to make the move that was required, he said
"We sought no commitments or assurances from anyone with respect to this report. I meant everyone, and that included the Prime Minister and everyone else.
"We are well aware, and everyone should be well aware, that in the communique creating this body the two governments expressly reserved to themselves the right to review this report and did not commit themselves in advance to accepting our recommendations.
"That is an appropriate and a logical thing for them to have done. They ought to have, and do have, the complete and unfettered right to review this report before making a judgment on it, and then to decide on how best to proceed. How the Prime Minister proceeds is entirely up to him."
Senator Mitchell rejected any implication that there was any criticism of the British Prime Minister or the British government. He said
"We hold the Prime Minister in high regard and we think he is personally responsible for a great deal of the progress that has been made. I am sure the peace process would not have reached this stage, we would not have been here, but for his courage in dealing with this matter."
Asked why there was so little discussion in the report of the suggestion of an elected body Senator Mitchell said that it was plainly outside the scope of their, remit many of those who raised it had acknowledged this.
He added "One of the most difficult tasks we faced was how to remain true to the mandate we received, while still dealing with the issue in a realistic way. And so we did that on that issue, and it is surely an important, issue we don't mean to suggest, otherwise.
"But there are many important issues that are simply outside the scope of our remit. And we did that by commenting on them. These were raised. They are matters of concern. They could contribute to the building of confidence, which essentially is the problem underlying the entire dispute."
Where any issues were not covered in detail in the report, it should not be construed as any judgment on their part as to the relative importance or lack of importance of those issues.
When it was suggested to him that if a point scoring exercise was carried out on the report, the verdict might be that Sinn Fein and the Irish Government had out pointed the unionists, Senator Mitchell stressed that he did not believe in point scoring analysis.
"In fact, I think it is creates an atmosphere conducive to problem creating and not problem solving.
That approach was exactly the wrong way to look at the issue. It might be acceptable in election campaigns, "but on a matter of this gravity, on a matter truly of life and death, we encourage the parties and the people to look beyond such narrow considerations, to look at the opportunity for peace that exists and to grasp it
"We made our decisions without bias or prejudice, without fear or favour, not trying to keep score but rather to figure out a way to make a constructive contribution."
Asked if the peace process could survive without token decommissioning, he said "That is a matter for decision by the parties themselves. The portion of our report dealing with decommissioning during all party negotiations is in the form of a suggestion for the parties to consider. That is entirely up to them.
"What we hoped to do was simply to offer suggestions in that regard that might be useful to, the parties as they work to achieve what we think is a common objective a peaceful and prosperous future for the people of Northern Ireland."