SDLP chairman wants SF in talks after IRA truce

SINN Fein must be immediately allowed into all party talks if the IRA declares5 a permanent end to its campaign of violence, the SDLP chairman, Mr Jonathan Stephenson, has said.

Mr Stephenson, addressing the opening of the 26th SDLP annual conference in Cookstown, Co Tyrone, last night, said it was one of the "great tragedies" of the past 27 years that Sinn Fein's commitment to democracy was not put to the test during the IRA ceasefire.

And in reference to a controversial motion relating to a possible future electoral SDLP/Sinn Fein pact - to be discussed in a private session of the conference tomorrow - he was implicitly supportive of such an accord, in the event of a permanent IRA ceasefire.

In a wide ranging speech Mr Stephenson focused on what he saw as the urgent need for all party talks, a renewed IRA ceasefire, and a British government and a unionist willingness to engage with all sides.

A great opportunity was lost during the 18 month IRA ceasefire, he complained. Sinn Fein had made it clear that if its mandate was recognised that "in the end they would respect the mandates of others and accept the outcome of negotiations".

It was missed by the British government which lacked the courage to call all party talks, and by the "leadership of the republican movement who seemed to be more prepared to succumb to internal pressure for unity at any cost than to bear the frustrations of the long road to peace".

Mr Stephenson said Drumcree and the disturbances that followed were an "appalling indictment not just of the political bigotry of orangeism, but of the complete lack of political will at the heart of the British government's response".

He said vital questions remained to be answered were unionists really prepared to come to terms with nationalists and negotiate with them?

And would republicans accept that violence never succeeded in delivering lasting political change? Would they have the courage to "end hostilities for good? "If they do, I believe their political representatives must be admitted to all party talks at once."

Mr Stephenson admitted that the SDLP lost votes to Sinn Fein during the Forum election but this was a means of nationalists registering their protest at the inaction and intransigence" respectively of the British government and the unionist parties to the IRA ceasefire.