Churchman calls for NI arms gesture

The Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, the Rev Dr Samuel Hutchinson, has called on paramilitary organisations in the North to hand in "some" arms and explosives as a gesture towards confidence-building. "From a purely military viewpoint, that may not be significant," he said, "but it would be tremendous encouragement to the non-violent majority."

In an address to members of the Belfast Rotary Club yesterday he also expressed the hope that those paramilitary organisations which had declared ceasefires would not allow themselves to be sucked into renewed violence, and that those which had not declared ceasefires would do so without delay. He called on those who had not yet expressed regret for their campaigns of violence, to do so.

These, he said, were some of the confidence-building measures the paramilitaries could offer the wider community, "which certainly feels entitled to a response from them".

Dr Hutchinson also called for "a verbal ceasefire" and said that, though politics was adversarial, all public pronouncements made in 1998 should be "as diplomatic and statesmanlike as possible".

In the context of current worries he called on "the quiet, sensible, reasonable majority" of people in the North to think in terms of normality rather than the opposite. "Despite the violent activities of some ruthless men, much of life goes on as normal," he said.

"There's a psychological battle to be won here," he said. "Don't let the extremists dominate our thinking. It's the reasonable majority who should be setting the agenda and dictating the pace, not the minority of extremists."

Stating that honest citizens resented the recent security lapses at the Maze, he criticised the prominence given to the various paramilitaries and their associates, "both in the media and in the corridors of power". Those who had a history of violence or whose attitude to a final and permanent ceasefire was perceived to be ambivalent, had an advantage over those who "quietly rely on traditional democratic methods".

Overall, there was a fear that the outcome of the whole political process in the North might turn on the question of who could cause the greatest trouble, "either by paramilitary violence or civil disorder", he said. The future shape of Northern Ireland society must not be moulded by such considerations, and he urged "the peace-loving majority" to speak up and dispel any impression that so long as the extremists could be bought off, others would quietly acquiesce in any proposal.

"When the promised referendum comes it will be difficult to say `no' without seeming to be obstructionist," he said, "so the time to speak up is now, before the concrete sets." The talks process might be less than perfect, "but it's the opportunity that lies before us just now, so there's little to be gained by walking away from it".

Dr Hutchinson said it was not a time for people of any persuasion to undermine leaders whose jobs were already difficult enough. All those in authority deserved to be supported at this critical time.

Pointing to Beirut and the fragmentation of its communities, he said: "I see worrying signs that that pattern is beginning to emerge in Northern Ireland." But "that must not happen here".