Ahern praises SF, loyalist `courage' in peace process

"People should not be so begrudging" about the paramilitary ceasefires, even if they are imperfect, the Taoiseach has said.

Speaking at the Fianna Fail annual Wolfe Tone Commemoration at Bodenstown in Co Kildare, Mr Ahern praised "the courageous political leadership given in recent years by many in Sinn Fein and the loyalist parties".

The peace process would be incomparably worse off without this leadership, the Taoiseach said. He called for the efforts made by Sinn Fein and the loyalist parties to be recognised, as "they do not always have the freedom of manoeuvre that we imagine.

"Both ceasefires have held well, compared with other situations of transition around the world and people should not be so begrudging about that," he said.

However, Mr Ahern deplored the lapses in the ceasefires. "I do not know how anyone can reconcile with their consciences the punishment beatings and killings as well as other forms of intimidation that are a serious violation of human rights . . . paramilitary groups are, and ought to be, just as accountable as the forces of the state. "

In the long term, democratic institutions were not compatible with private armies or arsenals or crude law enforcement, Mr Ahern said. If participants in the process wanted to see all these things cease, then there was an urgent need to fill the political vacuum.

The signatories to the agreement understood that they had to achieve "the total disarmament of all paramilitary organisations". This could be achieved only voluntarily with the help of all parties working genuinely and with determination. All the participants in the Assembly should be asked to live up to the standards required in the pledge of office.

Mr Ahern deplored the treatment of Catholics in Larne and Carrickfergus, and "the intimidation in Portadown". He said sectarian bigotry was as grave a problem today as it was 200 years ago.

Protestant minorities had also suffered in some places along the Border, "mainly in the North but occasionally this may occur in the South also".

Mr Ahern said he had made it clear to the Rev Ian Paisley on his recent visit that the State recognised a bounden duty to protect and defend all those who wished only to profess their religion. The Taoiseach said he was convinced that the parties involved in the peace process wanted to succeed, "not least because it is in their interests to do so". The Anglo-Irish Agreement and the existing wording of Articles 2 and 3 would remain in force until the institutions under the Belfast Agreement were established and many reforms under the agreement "will still need to be carried out . . . even in the absence of institutions".

Northern Ireland stood tantalisingly on the brink of a major political transformation in the form of the responsibility-sharing administration.

"In one leap Northern Ireland will move from being a place where democracy has not functioned to having one of the most innovative and inclusive democratic systems in the world . . . One would have thought that those who wish to demonstrate that Northern Ireland can function as a political entity would seize the opportunity that is now available."

Mr Ahern urged the parties to Senator George Mitchell's review of the process to make a supreme effort during the time that remained to overcome the outstanding obstacles to agreement. Immense damage would be done if those opposed to the agreement were to succeed in frustrating democracy, the Taoiseach concluded.