UUP rejects Hume comment on leader

The Ulster Unionist Party has rejected comments from the SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, implicitly criticising Mr David Trimble for being away from Northern Ireland at this period of political crisis.

Mr Hume yesterday urged the British and Irish governments to convene a meeting of all the pro-agreement parties to search for a way out of the impasse.

He was due, with Mr Trimble, to deliver a lecture at a peace forum in Minnesota but sent the former SDLP junior minister, Mr Denis Haughey, in his stead. Mr Hume did not directly criticise Mr Trimble but said that because of the political deadlock it was "the duty of political leaders to be here and not elsewhere".

"I felt I could not be away at the present time," he told The Irish Times.

A spokeswoman for the Minnesota peace forum expressed disappointment that Mr Hume was not attending. She told the BBC she understood he could not be there for health reasons.

The former arts minister, Mr Michael McGimpsey, of the UUP, said Mr Trimble was still closely engaged with the political process. "In the modern-day communications era because somebody steps on a plane does not mean they are incommunicado. That is far from the case," he said.

As well as participating in a week-long lecture tour Mr Trimble is also due to meet political leaders in the US. He is expected to meet President Clinton's national security adviser, Mr Sandy Berger, in Washington on Monday.

Mr McGimpsey said the UUP was trying to arrange meetings with the SDLP, and had initiated meetings with Sinn Fein and other parties to discuss the situation.

The Northern Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, may also travel to the US next week. He met the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, in Dublin yesterday, before attending a private engagement in the city last night. A Northern Ireland Office spokesman described the meeting as constructive.

The Sinn Fein MP for Mid-Ulster, Mr Martin McGuinness, will also be in the US next week. The Sinn Fein vice-president, Mr Pat Doherty, said he would spend several days there briefing the White House administration, political leaders and Irish-American organisations.

Mr Doherty again blamed the British government and the Ulster Unionist Party for the suspension of the political institutions. "The Good Friday agreement was about inclusivity, equality, democratic rights and removing all vetoes," he said.

"The British government's decision to collapse the institutions has set all this back, re-imposed a unionist veto and created the most serious crisis to date within the peace process. We all have a duty to urgently tackle this crisis."

Meanwhile, the DUP has asked why the International Independent Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) should continue in existence now that the IRA has pulled out of engaging with the body, and withdrawn propositions indicating that some form of decommissioning might happen.

A DUP delegation led by the party leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, yesterday met Gen. John de Chastelain's decommissioning body.

Dr Paisley said he urged the general to leave Northern Ireland.

The commission employed 10 full-time staff, had cost over £2.5 million since it was established in August 1997, and had produced nothing.

"We were telling the general he should go, and his staff should go, because he can come back when the IRA are ready to decommission," Dr Paisley said.

The DUP security spokesman, Mr Gregory Campbell, said the general himself was examining his future role and function.

"Gen. de Chastelain told us that he had raised with the British and Irish governments whether in the current circumstances there was anything for the commission to do at present. He mentioned about the commission being suspended and possibly being reconvened if there was some movement on decommissioning," Mr Campbell said.

"But Gen. de Chastelain told us that other parties were most insistent that he stay," he added.

Mr Campbell said the general told the delegation that on Friday last, the day the political institutions were suspended, the IRA interlocutor met the commission. However, Gen. de Chastelain would not elaborate on his second more positive report about IRA decommissioning now that the IRA has withdrawn.