Clinton to Ireland: 'Claim Your Moment' for Peace

B E L F A S T, Northern Ireland, Dec. 13 -- President Clinton’s last presidential visit to Northern Ireland ended today with a peace process still stalled and politicians feuding, yet citizens still longing for a violence-free future.

He told the people of Belfast to “claim your moment” for peace.

Clinton succeeded in recharging the talks to resolve 30 years of sectarian and political violence over Britain’s rule of Northern Ireland. He left with an informal agreement between the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom to do more to counter terrorists unhappy with the new and fragile power-sharing government in thenorth.

“I believe in the peace you are building. I believe there can be no turning back. I believe you are committed to that,” Clinton said before leaving for London where he planned to meet Thursday with Queen Elizabeth II and make a foreign policy speech. “And I think it’s very important that people the world over see what youare doing and support you along the way.”

A Three-Hour Meeting

The president met for nearly three hours with members of the Northern Ireland Assembly but none of the leaders made any announcements about how they can surmount key issues — disarmament by terrorist groups and police reform — that are threatening to unravel the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

“It is still for you to claim your moment,” Clinton told more than 6,000 people who packed a brand new sports arena along a revitalized city waterfront.

David Trimble, Protestant first minister in the new Northern Ireland government, warmed up the audience for Clinton, saying he would “stand firm” in his demand for gradual Irish Republican Army disarmament. “I do not intend to let the ship of peace sink on the rocks of old habits and hard grudges,” he said. “We arelearning to define ourselves by what we are for, not what we areagainst.”

British Prime Minister Tony Blair defended his government’s cautious approach to scaling down its military forces in Northern Ireland in response to the Irish Republican Army’s 1997 cease-fire. Despite IRA dissidents’ continuing effort to wreck the cease-fire, Blair said, Britain had already reduced British forces in theprovince to around 13,000, the lowest level in three decades.