An embarrassing public division has opened between the leaders of the recently merged elements of the Labour Party after the party leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, yesterday publicly contradicted his foreign affairs spokesman, Mr Proinsias De Rossa, on policy on Kosovo.
Mr De Rossa, the former Democratic Left leader, who is now president of the Labour Party, refused to comment last night after Mr Quinn stated he was opposed to unilateral suspension of air strikes by NATO and added: "That is the Labour Party policy."
Last Thursday on RTE Radio's Morning Ireland, Mr De Rossa effectively called for just such a unilateral end to NATO's attacks when he demanded "an immediate suspension".
Mr Quinn has therefore endorsed NATO's policy of bombing Yugoslavia despite Mr De Rossa's call for an immediate end to the bombing.
It is understood several front bench members expressed their anger to Mr Quinn following Mr De Rossa's comments. They said Mr De Rossa had not accurately represented the party's view and some argued that Mr Quinn must make this clear publicly. Yesterday's comments by Mr Quinn were a direct response to these representations.
Speaking on RTE's News at One, Mr Quinn said: "Until the Yugoslav army and Milosevic stop the outrageous behaviour of killing people, of forcing people from their homes, of burning and destroying those homes, the maximum amount of military pressure has to be brought to bear upon them in my view until such time as talks can resume.
"I would love the airstrikes to stop tomorrow night if talks could resume, but if the airstrikes were to stop unilaterally there would be no pressure on Milosevic to stop what he's doing at the moment . . . That is the Labour Party policy." The sharp public disagreement between the men will embarrass the party in the run-up to its first conference as a merged entity in under three weeks' time.
That conference, which the party hoped would be a launching pad for the European and local election campaigns, may now be dominated by the divisive debate on defence and security policy.
Contacted by The Irish Times yesterday, Mr De Rossa confirmed he had heard Mr Quinn's RTE interview but would not comment at this point.
He has previously described the airstrikes as "a serious misjudgment" and "in conflict with the principles of international law". He has written that "NATO's illjudged action has turned a crisis into a humanitarian catastrophe".
Mr De Rossa wrote in The Irish Times that "the primary policy objective of the Government" should be "to seek an immediate suspension of the attacks and the resumption of dialogue, no matter how difficult this may be and regardless of how intransigent Milosevic has proved to be in the past".
In contrast, Mr Quinn said yesterday: "There were extensive talks with the Yugoslav government and other governments which failed ultimately in Rambouillet to get an agreement.
Mr Quinn said the UN was prevented from carrying out that role by the fact that it did not have an army and the fact that as permanent members of the UN Security Council Russia and China had a veto on any action. E's News at One programme about Mr De Rossa's call in the Dail for an end to airstrikes, Mr Quinn said: