Posted on 10/25/2001 3:18:37 PM PDT by Benson_Carter
BELFAST (Reuters) - Britain tore down several fortified army posts and Northern Ireland's coalition government resumed business on Thursday as the province took further tentative steps on the path to peace.
Responding to what they called a ``significantly reduced security threat,'' security forces were demolishing four key installations following the IRA's decision this week to start destroying its underground arsenal -- western Europe's largest.
And pro-British Protestant ministers returned to the province's power-sharing government returned after a walkout last week in protest at the IRA's failure to disarm.
The Irish Republican Army's weapons move -- unprecedented in its three-decade struggle to end British rule in which 3,600 people have died on both sides -- has reignited a peace process which had appeared to be running out of steam.
But the lingering threat of violence was still apparent with the arrest late on Wednesday of two men with a sub-machinegun on the outskirts of Belfast.
Police said the men were believed to be dissident republicans opposed to the IRA's peaceful overtures. Security forces were also mindful that hardline pro-British loyalist paramilitary groups were still armed and active.
``It's too early to say that the war is over. Dissident republicans, just as loyalist groups do, continue to pose a threat,'' Ronnie Flanagan, the province's police chief, told BBC television.
A small anti-British political group, Republican Sinn Fein, said on Thursday the IRA move was a humiliating surrender that ''helps to cement British rule in Ireland -- by reducing the potential for resistance to British occupation forces.''
DEMOLITION JOB
At the windswept hilltop of Sturgan Mountain in the former ''bandit country'' of south Armagh, British troops and engineers dismantled watchtower ``Romeo One One.''
``We intend to put this back to a greenfield site. It is our aim to remove everything right down and leave it rock and earth,'' Major Alastair Balgarnie of the Royal Engineers told reporters invited to witness the event.
The Sturgan watchtower is one of four military posts being dismantled as a direct result of the IRA disarmament.
Reaction to the scaling down of military operations was mixed. To Catholics, the bases and towers are a hated symbol of British rule, to Protestants a reassuring security presence.
Security sources said Britain's Ministry of Defense, overstretched by more pressing commitments in the wake of the September 11 suicide hijackings in the United States, was keen to reduce troop numbers in the province.
But so far there has been no announcement of any reduction in Britain's 13,500-strong garrison in Northern Ireland.
BUSINESS AS USUAL
At government buildings in Belfast it was business as usual on Thursday as Protestant ministers returned to the posts they quit last week over the IRA's failure to disarm.
The power-sharing coalition government between pro-London Protestants and Roman Catholics who want rule from Dublin was the centerpiece of the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement.
But its progress has been stymied by repeated walkouts and suspensions as Protestant and Catholic parties wrangled over the disarmament issue.
The provincial government still faces another test next week with the election of a new first minister.
Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble, a moderate Protestant politician who resigned as first minister in July to pressure the IRA to disarm, hopes to get the go-ahead from his party to stand again.
Trimble is likely to get the green light. But political sources say he will have a fight on his hands to get the necessary votes in the provincial parliament because a few of his own hard-liners still oppose the peace accord.
``Trimble is key to the whole process, so next week's election is crucial,'' one British government source said.
Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble, center, leads ministers from left: Michael Mc Gimpsey, Sam Foster and Sir Reg Empey down the stairs at Parliament Buildings after handing their letter of resignation at Stormont, Belfast, Northern Ireland, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2001. Northern Ireland's largest Protestant party resigned Thursday from the province's unity government, aiming to force Britain to suspend the troubled experiment in Catholic-Protestant cooperation until the Irish Republican Army starts to disarm.(AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
The terrorists have a very firm grip over the territory they control and a spark in the wrong place could easily set the whole place alight.
NI is a patchwork quilt of political allegiances and the terrorists exert more control than the legal authorities.
There are 'front lines' all over the place. Ardoyne in North Belfast is one of the less stable places.
Trimble and Durkan (SDLP) need to work closely together as a team to hold the centre ground. Unfortunately, public safety is in the hands of Blair and Ahern not where it should be: Trimble and Durkan.
You mean have the British government leave the country, return the 6 northern counties back to Ireland, and allow them to be an independent state, free of all duties and responsibilities of the Empire? Or do you mean allow them to become an autonomous territory only to have their own constitution after 200+ years of British rule, such as Canada which only created its own constitution in the past 20 years?
Good luck to them all.
I believe that Sinn Fein did the right thing to surrender their weapons. Now the unionist paramilitaries must do the same. The ball is in their court.
Sure, there are those who won't accomodate themselves to peace but hopefully they are only a small minority. It was definitely time for the British Army to return to its home. The dream of Michael Collins and the other heroic signers of the 1922 Treaty may yet be redeemed.
Regards.
In recent years it has only been used to support the police and to monitor possible terrorist movement from the Republic.
Part of the latter capability is currently being reduced but it is still being used in 'hot spots' such as the Ardoyne to help keep local groups from each other's throats.
A small amount [unspecified] of republican weapons has been destroyed because of US pressure but sadly no loyalist ones have been.
The little hypocrite confirmed that it was okay to have terrorists in government in Belfast and on the North-South Council but not in the RoI administration.
So much for democracy and equality!!
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