Major Accepts IRA Cease-Fire, Opens Borders

BELFAST — In another long step toward peace in Northern Ireland, British Prime Minister John Major announced here Friday that he accepts the current cease-fire in the troubled province, and he ordered all border crossings opened.

The cease-fire now being observed by both sides in the long-running conflict is “intended to be permanent,” Major said, and Britain will enter into talks with Sinn Fein, the political arm of the outlawed Irish Republican Army, “before this year is out.”

The announcement indicated that, after 25 years of violence in Northern Ireland, leaders of all factions would be invited to sit at the same table to seek a solution that would satisfy both the majority Protestants, who want to retain British rule in the province, and minority Catholics, who want the British out.

Speaking to a luncheon of Belfast business people, Major said he is also lifting a British ban against Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams and Vice President Martin McGuinness, allowing them now to travel freely in Britain.

Additionally, the prime minister said he will review the need for British army soldiers to patrol the streets of Northern Ireland and may begin turning policing over to the civilian Royal Ulster Constabulary.

During the cease-fire, the soldiers have kept a low profile, and army sources say that some units may now be returned to Britain.

Major said the coming talks will address the sensitive matter of paramilitary groups turning in their weapons and explosives, but he did not make it a condition of any party joining the talks.

The prime minister’s announcement was hailed by most moderate leaders in Northern Ireland, particularly Protestant and Catholic clergymen.

The exception was the militant Protestant Rev. Ian Paisley, head of the Democratic Unionist Party, who charged that Major had “gone back on promises to the people of Northern Ireland over talks. He said the cease-fire had to be permanent.”

Until now, the British government had insisted that the IRA and Sinn Fein must declare any cease-fire permanent--as called for in last December’s Downing Street Declaration signed by Major and Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds, which spelled out terms for peace talks. On Friday, Major said the IRA’s adherence to the cease-fire was “more compelling than their words.”

Paisley also declared that a surrendering of weapons by paramilitary forces should be made a condition of any peace talks.

Protestant Member of Parliament Ken Maginnis, a moderate, said of the Friday announcement: “It is risky but courageous. John Major is throwing down the gauntlet to the paramilitaries to keep the cease-fire.”

The IRA announced a unilateral cease-fire on Aug. 31, which the group has observed. They were joined last week by the main Protestant Unionist paramilitary groups.

Reynolds and American leaders had pressured Major to accept that the cease-fire was working and join in talks with all parties north and south of the Irish border.

In Washington, President Clinton congratulated Northern Ireland’s warring parties on their progress, calling the developments “very hopeful” and adding: “I am very glad that the United States has been able to be involved in this peace process in Northern Ireland.”

Major, supported by British loyalist leaders in Northern Ireland, urged caution Friday, but he apparently is now convinced that the cease-fire will hold long enough for talks to begin.

“I am now prepared to make a working assumption that the cease-fire is intended to be permanent,” he said. “If we can continue reasonably to assume that Sinn Fein is establishing a commitment to exclusively peaceful methods, if the IRA continues to show that it has ended terrorism, then we shall be ready to convene exploratory talks before this year is out.”

“If the cease-fire breaks down,” one commentator here said, “the prime minister can’t be blamed for trying.”

And Major himself, under drizzly skies, visited border areas Friday. In Dungannon, he told well-wishers: “I hope the violence is over. If not, it was not for want of trying.”

A total of 88 border crossings will be opened, thus easing the burden of rural farmers who have relatives and business interests on both sides of the border with the Republic of Ireland.

Major said in his speech that his strategy “is to make sure that the violence is over for good. We must aim to make a return to violence unthinkable.”

Sinn Fein’s McGuinness said of Major’s announcement: “I think we have seen the British government at last moving in the right direction. We are heading for a melting pot of talks, where eventually the British government ends its jurisdiction over Northern Ireland.”

But striking an ominous note, a former Sinn Fein and IRA chief accused Adams of betrayal and warned that a new terrorist group will emerge to fight British control of the province.

Ruairi O’Bradaigh, said to have been an IRA chief during the 1960s, told the Belfast Telegraph that the IRA cease-fire is permanent, because the leadership has been “constitutionalized.” But in the nature of the long struggle, he said, another group would rise up to take its place.

On Monday, Major will meet Reynolds in England to discuss the next steps in arranging all-party peace talks.