Anti-agreement Ulster Unionists will today publish their proposals for the party's future strategy on decommissioning. They involve a series of sanctions against Sinn FΘin and eventual withdrawal from the Executive if there is not further movement by the Provisional IRA on the arms issue by February.
The 860 delegates to Saturday's Ulster Unionist Council meeting will receive the proposals in a letter today signed by UUP honorary secretary, Ms Arlene Foster. Mr Trimble yesterday sent his letter to delegates pledging to maintain the pressure for de commissioning.
But he refused to divulge his tactics for achieving progress on the arms issue and said his party had to trust him. The Northern Secretary, Dr John Reid, said no deadline had been set to end the existence of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD).
The decommissioning legislation, which runs out in February, was likely to be renewed and the term of office for the IICD chairman, Gen John de Chastelain, was open-ended, he said.
In his letter to UUC delegates, Mr Trimble pledged to keep working for decommissioning. "I will not relax the pressure until we are satisfied that all paramilitary organisations have decommissioned according to the law.
"If need be, I will apply whatever tactics are required to achieve this but I will not disclose my tactics to my opponents and I will not have unionism pay any further unnecessary price. I think I am entitled to ask you to trust me on this as I have already proved that I will stick to this until I get results." The motion, which Mr Trimble will put before delegates, calls on all party members to support his efforts to obtain total and verifiable decommissioning - but it sets down no deadline for the move.
Anti-Agreement unionists want Mr Trimble to introduce a February deadline. Instead, Mr Trimble has said he will deliver a progress report to the UUC in March. In his motion, the UUP leader also pledges to oppose an amnesty for IRA members on the run and to defend British symbols in the North.
He does not suggest sanctions if his efforts fail. Young Unionist Dr Philip Weir, a leading anti-Agreement activist, said Mr Trimble's' proposals were inadequate. "Saying we should wait until after February, is letting the IRA set the agenda. We all just have to sit back and wait and see what they do. That is not good enough.
"We need a strategy to achieve our objectives, not a pie-in-the-sky wish-list. The UUC faces a vital choice on Saturday. Delegates must decide who they trust to set the deadline on decommissioning - themselves or Gerry Adams." Dr Weir claimed that if Mr Trimble didn't harden his position he would be "in trouble" at Saturday's meeting.
The letter, which UUC delegates will today receive from the anti-Agreement wing, calls for a range of sanctions against Sinn FΘin if there isn't movement on a issues such as decommissioning, criminal justice and policing reforms, demilitarisation, and the amnesty for IRA members on the run. The sanctions include preventing Sinn FΘin from attending North-South Ministerial Council meetings and the UUP eventually withdrawing from the Executive.