SDLP leader critical of governments' strategy

The SDLP leader yesterday strongly criticised the British and Irish governments' handling of developments in the North in recent days.

Mr Mark Durkan said the governments had adopt a "gang of four" approach by concentrating on the two parties which had done most to hold back the Good Friday agreement and excluding others.

The SDLP leader, who met the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, yesterday, said that, even if the current impasse over the IRA's latest act of decommissioning was resolved, the rest of the achievements were now "spoiled goods".

Mr Durkan also called on the IRA to go back to Gen John de Chastelain and provide further details of the arms that it put beyond use.

He said Mr Tony Blair and Mr Ahern had claimed that the SDLP and other pro-agreement parties had been excluded from recent talks because they "did not have guns", but Mr Durkan rejected this.

Instead of manipulating the talks, he said, the governments needed to involve all parties if they were intent on abiding by the spirit of the Good Friday agreement and restore public confidence in the process.

"This still remains a fairly exclusive process as far as the two parties and two governments are concerned. The rest of us are meant to be treated as though we're the consumer of whatever hype or spin they come up with.

"The fact is that it isn't washing with the public any more," Mr Durkan said.

"Tony Blair last year talked about a fork in the road. These parties need to realise they have come to a fork in the road as far as the credibility of the exercise is concerned.

"Now, as a result of the last few weeks, these problem parties which have held us back are going to be the 'dream ticket'. The people who held us back are suddenly the people who are going to take us forward. Nobody believes that any more."

Mr Durkan also said the IRA should go back to Gen de Chastelain and give him licence to offer further details of the arms which have been decommissioned.

"I can understand why the IRA were cautious on this occasion.

"I think now they know they can trust him to reveal a little bit more without breaching something that is essential to them.

"They obviously are concerned that things will be misrepresented or abused by others," he said.

"They hopefully will realise that that's the best way to ensure there is some value from what they have done."

However, Mr Durkan also warned that public trust in the process had already been eroded as a result of the governments' actions, even if the arms issue is eventually resolved.

"In many ways I think it's over to the people to bring some honesty back into the process. We're at a point, maybe, where the people can be better trusted to bring some honesty back into this process other than people who have been managing and manipulating it in recent weeks."

Despite the setbacks, he said, he believed the process could be rescued.

"I'm not saying write this off completely. I'm saying Tuesday shouldn't have been written up in the way it was written up in advance."