Sir, - John Waters (Opinion, March 30th) is at it again, insisting that decommissioning is a side issue - rather than being the very core of what Sinn Fein had to offer in the Good Friday negotiations. Good Friday was made possible by the IRA ceasefire, but the agreement was framed not merely to confirm the ceasefire, but to move beyond it to a state of permanent peace. Only in such a state would the other elements of the agreement - the unique legislative arrangements, the cross-border bodies, the commissions dealing with rights and with the reform of the RUC - have any prospect of working.
Only in such a state of permanent peace can the people of the six Northern counties possibly be expected to develop the mutual trust and respect needed to govern themselves.
It is not a question of whether the Republicans have been defeated in war, and decommissioning is the mark of that defeat. Manifestly, the war has not achieved a United Ireland; but what it has achieved - the structures detailed in the Good Friday Agreement - has been accepted in its stead, and the ultimate goal is now to be pursued by strictly democratic means. Decommissioning is the assurance that the war is truly over.
Mr Waters's problem is his willingness to detach decommissioning in practice (which is not a precondition in the agreement) from the commitment to decommissioning (which very much is). He was capable of saying (Opinion, January 19th): "Mr. Trimble may be right in suggesting that Sinn Fein's efforts to persuade the IRA have not been vigorous enough. But it is unclear what this has to do with the content of the Belfast Agreement . . ." The extent of Sinn Fein's efforts to "persuade" the IRA has, of course, everything to do with the "content of the Belfast Agreement".
The Republican commitment to "the total disarmament of all paramilitary organisations" and "to use any influence they may have to achieve the decommissioning of all paramilitary arms within two years" were just about the only concessions that they made in the entire process. Knowing, as we do, that Sinn Fein and the IRA are essentially one, how else can this commitment be assessed except by whether decommissioning happens? - Yours, etc., William Hunt,
Harold's Cross Road, Dublin 6W.