U.K. Suspends N. Ireland Home-Rule Govt.
B E L F A S T, Northern Ireland, August 10 -- Britain stripped power from Northern Ireland's Catholic-Protestant government today, a maneuverthat will give political parties six more weeks to break theirimpasse over Irish Republican Army disarmament.
Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid announced Britain hadwithdrawn authority from the administration and legislatureeffective at midnight local time, but might hand power back afterconsulting the Irish government Saturday.
The suspension capped a tense week in which disarmament chiefsand the IRA agreed on a secret method for disposing of weapons, butnot a date to start.
Protestant leaders insisted that the IRA must start getting ridof its arms, otherwise they would scuttle a power-sharingarrangement that includes the IRA-linked Sinn Fein party.
It was the second time Britain took powers away from the20-month-old administration, both times in an attempt to resolvethe question of when the IRA would disarm in support of the GoodFriday peace accord of 1998.
Deadlines to Serve the People
Reid's action, exploiting a legal technicality, meant thefour-party administration could survive for at least another sixweeks without a Protestant leader. The deadline to elect a new"first minister" had been Saturday following the resignation sixweeks ago of David Trimble, who leads the major Protestant party,the Ulster Unionists.
"As so often in Northern Ireland, we have reached what appearsto be an immovable date. ... But I believe that dates and deadlinesare here to serve the people, not the other way round," Reid saidat his Hillsborough Castle residence near Belfast.
Reid said the law prohibited him from saying immediately howlong the suspension would last.
The Disarmament Issue
But British officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, saidthe joint strategy of the British and Irish governments was to handpower back to local hands after Saturday's meeting between Reid andIrish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen.
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