Britain to Appoint Violence Monitor for Northern Ireland

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, September 19, 2002

Britain to Appoint Violence Monitor for Northern Ireland

Britain announced Wednesday it would appoint a respected expert to monitor violence in Northern Ireland, a move backed by the province's British Protestants but opposed by Irish Catholics.

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Britain announced Wednesday it would appoint a respected expert to monitor violence in Northern Ireland, a move backed by the province's British Protestants but opposed by Irish Catholics.

Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid confirmed the move after a meeting between Prime Minister Tony Blair and Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Fein, the Irish Republican Army-linked party.

Many Protestants are demanding Sinn Fein's ouster from the joint Catholic-Protestant government in Northern Ireland because of mounting allegations that the IRA remains involved in violence. On Saturday the Protestant leader of the coalition, First Minister David Trimble, will face a difficult meeting of his Ulster Unionist Party convened especially to debate the issue.

Adams accused Britain of seeking a violence monitor "to try and sustain or uphold or defend whatever section of unionism is for this agreement." He said Britain appeared to be "returning to the old game of bolstering unionists and pointing the finger of blame at republicans."

But Reid said that appointing a violence monitor would do much more than shore up Trimble's position. The expert's findings, he said, would help to restore confidence in a peace process being assailed by all of Northern Ireland's secret armed organizations.

Reid said the expert, to be appointed within the next few weeks, "will help to create a greater sense of openness and reinforce the transition to a normal democratic society." He said the person picked must be a respected expert in paramilitary violence, "not a celebrity or a star."

Source: Agencies

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