THE following is an edited version of Mr John Hume's speech to the annual SDLP conference:
"We are gathered here at this point of time, a crucial moment in the history of our country, a moment of great challenge to all political parties and both Governments. It is a time for reflection and indeed for our party at this conference to reflect on our past policies, attitudes and achievements. It is something that we have not been inclined to do.
We have never boasted about our success or achievements but perhaps it is both timely and appropriate at this point of time, as we seek to lead all sections of our people and to persuade certain other parties to come down a totally non violent road, a road of total dialogue, a road to lasting peace and stability, to reflect on the basic principles and attitudes that have governed our philosophy and our strategy for peace and stability over the years since our foundation.
For us Ireland has always been its people. It has never been a piece of earth. We have challenged and rejected the territorial mentality that has shaped the definition of patriotism and nationalism in this country for so long. Without its people Ireland is but a jungle and the piece of earth called Ireland is already united. It is the people of Ireland who are divided and they cannot be brought together by any form of force or coercion but only by agreement. Victories are not solutions in divided societies. Our philosophy has been and will always be a total commitment to non violent peaceful methods of resolving our difference.
The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.
There are two sets of legitimate rights - the rights of the unionist people to their identity and their ethos and the rights of the nationalist people to the same. The challenge of agreement is to accommodate both, a challenge that will require new thinking on all sides, a challenge that cannot be pursued by violence. The logic of promoting such agreement is that all resources and energies should be devoted to that objective. That means in practice, as we in the SDLP put forward in 1979, that the two governments should abandon the megaphone diplomacy that had characterised their relationships since 1920 and work together to promote agreement.
Historians will judge the reasons for the delay by the British government in starting the all party talks, but it is my own strong conviction that, had they started soon after the ceasefire, we would have lasting peace by now. Let history judge it, but let all of us with responsibility do all in our power to have the ceasefire restored and have the current talks take place in a totally peaceful atmosphere, with all parties, including Sinn Fein, involved. I believe that Prime Minister John Major wants to see that happen.
Let me also say to the IRA that, in spite of any distrust that they may have, the 18 months ceasefire transformed the mood of the people of Ireland North and South, strengthened massively the will for peace and created massive international goodwill, particularly in Europe and the United States, which can be translated into real economic benefits for all sections of our people. I ask the IRA to renew their ceasefire and create the circumstances where all the energies of all our people are devoted to building a new Ireland based on respect for both of our traditions.
Let me give you just two figures to show how much we are held back by violence. In 1995, tourism from the South to the North increased by 67 per cent and exports the North to the South by 45 per cent. When you reflect on thee human reality behind these figures, the nights spent in Northern hotels, restaurants and bars, the conversations, the friendships struck up, the exposure of the North's business people to the reality of the modern economy of the South you realise the potential, not just for employment, but for reconciliation that has been put at risk by the collapse of the ceasefire.
,Partnership means working on joint practical projects North and South. Europe, through the internal market, has created an economic space on the island where we can grow together instead of apart. In almost every sector - agriculture, business, tourism, energy - the main interests and groupings on both sides of the Border are calling for a more integrated, harmonised and united approach to marketing, to planning, to taxation, to regulation. This is an economic and political reality to which all political parties will have to adjust.
We are at present facing the challenge in the more difficult political front in the talks process. In these talks, and not for the first time, others are perniciously misrepresenting the SDLP. We are getting fed up with the unionist parties and unionist newspapers accusing the SDLP of holding up the talks to get Sinn Fein in.
We have never made any preconditions for substantive talks between other parties, the two governments and ourselves. Others are pushing preconditions about Sinn Fein not us.
We make no apology for working towards having all mandated parties at the table on the same basis - commitment to the Mitchell Principles - in the context of a total cessation of violence. But trying to achieve that very valid objective would not require or justify the SDLP using stalling tactics or procedural diversions within the talks as presently constituted.
That is why we have not done so. Turning objectives into preconditions is not good politics. Could our detractors please note?
While what has been seen from the talks has inspired confusion and concern more than confidence, it is important for members of the SDLP to set things in perspective. We have all heard people saying that we are wasting our time in the talks, that they should be wound up and a new process created.
Yes, time is being wasted, as I have pointed out. But it has not been a waste of our time or mandate to ensure that the international independent chairmen were not displaced. Neither was it a waste of time or mandate to protect rules to allow any party to raise any issue in the talks without veto by other parties. It is not a waste of our time or mandate currently to work to prevent the erection of further obstacles to inclusive talks in the context of a restored ceasefire. Nor is it a waste of our time or mandate to try to find a way through with others, including unionists, the difficulties and differences bound up in the decommissioning issue.
Our efforts, and those of others at the talks, should not be, discounted. I have never believed that just because something is difficult, it is futile. Those nationalists who have suggested that we should stay away from these talks, or that they should be collapsed to clear the way for some different process, need to recognise that their approach would simply satisfy the short term agenda of those unionist parties who want to see the whole exercise diverted, subverted or aborted.
The sort of tensions and frustration will be inherent in any inclusive all party process no matter how much it is redesigned or reconstructed. Nobody should be under any illusions about that. That is why it is important to use time frames to help to concentrate minds and create some incentive for meaningful advance. That does not mean that we make the whole process hostage to a calendar.
An unequivocal renewal of the IRA ceasefire would be an enormous boost to those negotiations because it would create a totally peaceful atmosphere and all parties, including Sinn Fein, would at last be around the table with both governments for the first time in our history."