The Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, speaking at the opening of an integrated school in Carrickfergus, Co Antrim, condemned recent paramilitary expulsions. Photograph: Paul Faith/PA
Dr Mo Mowlam, setting the scene for next week's crucial Mitchell review and the Patten report on the future of policing, has urged the Ulster Unionist Party and Sinn Fein to keep faith with the political process, and warned against creating a climate of failure.
Terrorism would never be defeated without a political settlement and a policing service that had cross-community support, the Northern Secretary told students at the integrated Ulidia primary school in Carrickfergus, Co Antrim, yesterday.
As Sinn Fein and the UUP delay their decision over participation in the review, Dr Mowlam appealed to them to engage fully in the initiative aimed at breaking the deadlock over IRA disarmament and the creation of an inclusive executive. She complained that "both sides seem all too willing to contemplate the possibility of failure".
There was still a basic community desire to end the conflict. "And that is why the parties should be in there, talking to each other, in the Mitchell review, not walking away," she said. Dr Mowlam denied allegations that she was "appeasing" republicans. "What we're doing is not about appeasement, or turning a blind eye, but about helping society end its historic conflict." Dr Mowlam advised people to wait until the Patten report was published before reacting but indicated that there must be changes in the RUC to make the North's policing service more acceptable to nationalists. She said she had not seen the report and promised to consult the parties when it was published.
Dr Mowlam described the recent period as a "tough week". It was particularly difficult for the relatives of Mr Charles Bennett killed by the IRA, for those exiled by the IRA, for nationalist victims of loyalist violence, for police "barraged" with speculation about their future, and for everyone who hoped violence was over.
But the question was, should everyone simply give up. Should they go back to the days when parties "did not speak to each other", when "people were being killed day in day out, week after week"?
"I know that's not what everyone wants. But the reality is that unless there is a proper working political settlement that both sides can live with, unless the police here are accepted by the whole community, terrorism will never be defeated," said Dr Mowlam.
"That's the reality. People know the Good Friday agreement is the best we have. But unless there is confidence across the community, it simply won't work. Which is why, as Secretary of State, I have to keep trying to build that confidence - even though people sometimes say I am naive to do so," she added.
She condemned IRA killings, expulsions and "kangaroo courts", but said it had also to be acknowledged that there were some that supported the recent IRA expulsions of four Dungannon teenagers because "they said they could not support the police".
"That is very disturbing. But it is a reality we have to deal with, and a reality behind part of the Patten Commission on policing and its work - not because we are in the business of appeasing critics of the RUC, but because we have to find a way forward for policing which helps the force to be accepted as widely as possible in both communities, and makes events like last week as unimaginable as they should be."
She said it would be "insane and wrong" to suggest "putting paramilitaries in charge of local law enforcement". What was required was change that was sensible, practical and well-managed. "And I will make sure that those affected by anything Chris Patten recommends are dealt with generously and sympathetically as the Prime Minister promised they would be - in a timescale that is sensible for the families concerned."
Dr Mowlam said the time to debate Patten was after the report was published next week, not before.
The full text of Dr Mowlam's speech is available on The Irish Times on the Web at www.ireland.com
