Sir, - I am writing to express growing concern at the widespread acceptance of the failure of David Trimble and Seamus Mallon to form the shadow executive at Stormont by the deadline of October 31st. The Belfast Agreement set out a clear timetable for progression of the various strands in order to ensure that no-one dragged their feet over contentious aspects. The same timetable which sets a deadline for formation of the shadow executive states that progress on decommissioning must be started and completed within a two-year period, and is not, therefore, a precondition of Sinn Fein's inclusion in the executive.
The timetable is critical to the peace process and, in particular, to the building of trust within the Assembly. If people are not willing to meet deadlines at this early stage, one must question their commitment to other pledges which they made.
Perhaps if David Trimble refrained from usurping the role of General de Chastelain, as the chairman of the decommissioning body, and concentrated on his own duties as First Minister designate, including forming the shadow executive and instituting North-South bodies, then more progress would be made. Moreover, I hope that the Unionists, who are content to ignore this deadline, will be as flexible about the deadline for decommissioning when the time comes.
Mr Ahern may have been right when he said that it wasn't "the end of the world" if the shadow executive wasn't formed by October 31st (The Irish Times, October 28th). However, it could signal the beginning of the end for the Belfast Agreement. - Yours, etc., Naomi R. Long,
Castlereagh Alliance Party Association, Dundonald, Belfast 16.