STORMONT TO FALL FOR 5TH TIME

General John de Chastelain's report on January 31 that there was no start to, and timetable for, the surrender of arms by the Provisionals was swiftly followed by the UUP leader David Trimble's demand for the suspension of the Stormont executive and other bodies.

The surrender of arms: from 'ludicrous' to 'necessary' 'Gradually, does it' is clearly the motto of the Provisionals' military statements issued in recent years in response to the demand for the surrender of arms: September 1995: An arms surrender was a "ludicrous" demand. October 1996: It was a "vain attempt to defeat" them. Easter 1997: There will be no "decommissioning by the front door or the back door". July 1998: Decommissioning was part of "a failed agenda" which sought to defeat them. November 1999: The Provisionals called for the first time for the "full implementation" of the Stormont Agreement. February 5, 2000: The Provisionals accepted the surrender of arms as "a necessary objective" of the whole process and they "recognise that it has to be dealt with".

The British government quickly acquiesced to this and, as a result, Stormont is set to fall for the fifth time (1972, 1974, 1976, 1986 and now 2000) with British supremo Peter Mandelson poised to sign an order to bring the 'Northern Ireland Bill 2000' into operation and reintroduce British direct rule by Trimble's deadline – his reconvened meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council on February 12.

Such instability is inevitable in an artificial structure designed to govern an artificial area of six counties carved arbitrarily out of the body politic of Ireland's 32 Counties.

The only question remaining is whether Trimble will stick to his demand for 'product', ie a quantity of arms to be surrendered or will he settle for what de Chastelain considers is an acceptable timetable? In the latter case will he be able to get it through the Ulster Unionist Council?

His deputy, John Taylor, has stated that the unionists can live with the collapse of Stormont. They can pocket the net gains for unionists and British rule of the scrapping of Articles 2 and 3 and the Hillsborough Agreement. The Patten Report is obviously a big factor in the minds of unionists and has probably increased their disillusionment with the Stormont Agreement. Republicans have noted that Peter Mandelson has retained the Special Branch of the RUC, thus contradicting a key recommendation of Patten.

The current situation has seen the Provisionals cornered at last with no room for their usual ambiguity or fudging. Their erstwhile colleagues in the Pan-Nationalist Front have turned on them and are helping the British and the unionists to push them into a corner on the surrender of arms.

This has resulted in the significant February 5 statement from the Provisionals which stated that the surrender of arms is "a necessary objective" of the process. They have acquiesced in the demand to put arms beyond use and for a surrender of arms. If Stormont falls so will the North-South Ministerial Council and the cross-Border bodies and with them the Provisionals' spurious claim that they can end Partition.

The alternative to this debacle lies in a totally New Federal Ireland of the four provinces which would give the unionists a working majority in a nine-county Ulster with all powers of government except foreign affairs, national defence and over-all financing.

The way forward to this is through a 32-County Constituent Assembly elected solely to draft a new constitution for the whole island of Ireland.

Comhairle Uladh, the Ulster Executive of Republican Sinn Féin said in a statement that a meeting took place in Belfast on Saturday, January 22 to finalise arrangements for the official opening on Saturday, February 26 of an office in Belfast for Republican Sinn Féin. The meeting was the first to be held in the new premises at 229 Falls Road.

The statement went on to say that following the official opening ceremony on February 26 the Belfast office would be open to the public and media on a full-time basis and said that "the opening of our first office in the Six Counties constitutes a very significant step forward in the continuing growth and expansion of Republican Sinn Féin throughout Ireland, but particularly in the Occupied area.

"As more and more nationally-minded Irish people realise the magnitude of the national sell-out which the Provisionals and the Leinster House administration et al perpetrated in their name, so our membership and support increases steadily."

Republican Sinn Féin is increasingly seen as the true and authentic political voice of Irish Republicanism, never having compromised core Republican principles in the ongoing struggle for a complete and final British withdrawal from Ireland.

"The new Belfast office will serve as a focal point for true Republicans and other interested parties in Ulster and will compliment the sterling work of our Head Office (Ard-Oifig) in Dublin in offering the Republican analysis and our alternative to the Stormont Agreement, ie the ÉIRE NUAproposals, to an ever-widening support base.

"The exact details of the official opening ceremony on February 26, to which the media will be invited, will be notified in due course."

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