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Sat 10 Oct 2008Winner played vital role in advancing North peace process
MARTTI AHTISAARI played a low-key yet vital role in the peace process in relation to the question of IRA weapons. His was not an instantly recognisable face in Northern Ireland over the course of the last 10 years. But there is little doubt the success of the political process to date would have been hindered without him.
Progress remained stalled following the 1998 Belfast Agreement. Unionists were wedded to the policy position of "no guns, no government" and had demanded the surrender of the IRA's arsenal before it would enter a powersharing agreement with Sinn Féin. The IRA, for its part, had vowed "not a bullet, not an ounce" would be handed over.
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