Clinton in Belfast to Boost Peace Talks
B E L F A S T, Dec. 13 -- It’s a farewell tour that’s more than ceremonial. On his final overseas trip as president, Bill Clinton is urging residents of Northern Ireland to protect the progress they’ve made toward peace in the region — and to build on it.
On his third visit to the deeply divided country before he steps down as president on January 20, Clinton is meeting with key players on both sides today in the slow-moving drive for stability.
Clinton went into the meetings increasingly sure that his successor would be George W. Bush and not Vice President Al Gore after U.S. Supreme Court rulings on recounts that favored Bush.
But after the universal adulation that marked his visit to the neighboring Irish Republic and its capital Dublin, Clinton swiftly found a more sour mood in Belfast.
Hard-line Protestant leaders like fiery preacher Ian Paisley lost no time in making clear they felt Clinton favored minority Roman Catholics in negotiations about the future of the province, where 3,600 people have died in the 30-year conflict.
Paisley’s Democratic Unionist Party complained that Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is joining the talks, had snubbed them by not including them in today’s main talks.
Clinton and Blair are meeting the leaders — from Protestant First Minister David Trimble to Irish republican Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams — in a string of contacts that they hope will ease the current deadlock.
Divided Politicians
The peace process is faltering, with the local government arguing over delays in guerrilla disarmament and reform of the predominantly Protestant police.
Former U.S. senator and Northern Ireland mediator George Mitchell will also join the talks.
Mitchell chaired meetings of the divided politicians through 22 months of ultimately successful talks, doggedly keeping them at the negotiating table with a mixture of optimism, calmness and fairness which won him the respect of both the Protestant and Roman Catholic communities.
