A chara, - I would like to comment on the continuing stance by unionists to block Sinn Fein from taking up their positions on the All-Ireland Executive.
Sinn Fein's mandate continues to be ignored. By continuing to exclude Sinn Fein from the Executive and not allowing the party to fully represent its electorate on the Assembly and on the Executive, unionists are still saying that the people who voted for Sinn Fein have no rights either in the Assembly or on the Executive.
All parties have the right to be treated on equal terms with every other party involved with the implementation of the Good Friday agreement. The results of the Assembly elections show that there was a difference of less than 4 per cent between the Sinn Fein vote of 17.63 per cent and the UUP's 21.26 per cent.
David Trimble's remarks in the Assembly on January 18th that technically there are no pre-conditions means that Sinn Fein are entitled to their seats. It is obvious to everyone that at all costs David Trimble is now seeking to prevent Sinn Fein from taking up the positions they are entitled to under the terms governing the appointment to cabinet positions.
In attempting to exclude Sinn Fein, David Trimble is acting illegally, as nowhere in the Agreement does it state that decommissioning is a precondition for any party to be included in the Executive. In order for David Trimble to exclude Sinn Fein from the Executive, he has to rewrite the Good Friday Agreement. No one has the authority to rewrite the agreement, which the overwhelming majority of the people on the island of Ireland voted in favour of adopting.
David Trimble signed up to the Good Friday Agreement, which does not call for decommissioning as a precondition for entry on to the Executive. The fact that Trimble is now insistent upon writing this pre-requisite into the agreement must be seen as an appeasement of the bully-boy and "Not an inch" element within his own party and the DUP. - Is mise, Pat Doherty,
Sinn Fein Assembly Member, Assembly Building, Belfast 4.