Sir, - Your Editorial "Democracy's Citadel" (February 3rd) demonstrates how successful David Trimble and his Ulster Unionist Party have been in derailing the peace process and in reneging on the commitments they made in the Good Friday Agreement. That agreement called for a Northern Ireland Executive and a North-South Ministerial Council to be up and running by October 30th, 1998 and for all paramilitary weapons to be decommissioned by May 22nd, 2000.
For the past nine months, Mr Trimble has shown he is determined to stall the agreement. He now claims the right to turn its timetable upside down and to "park" the entire peace process until the IRA decommissions its weapons. Despite this intransigence, you assert that Mr Trimble has shown "remarkable flexibility and openness as to how and when the IRA might show its commitment to exclusively peaceful methods".
The Irish Times voices concern for Mr Trimble's political survival, should he actually implement the agreement to which he subscribed his name and that of his party. You write apocalyptically that "what is now at issue is whether to yield to the very citadel of democracy" and you find it "impossible to visualise any way in which Mr Trimble could capitulate to Sinn Fein and the IRA and survive as leader of the Ulster Unionists."
With respect, this is rubbish. The "citadel of democracy" has yet to be built in Northern Ireland. If Mr Trimble, as First Minister, is not willing to help lay its cornerstone, then his political demise - far from being a national tragedy - will be a footnote to the history of the agreement. To ensure the survival of the peace process, the Irish and British governments must not pander to Mr Trimble's obstructionism. They should tell him plainly that the agreement for which he has received so much public credit is not up for re-negotiation. A majority of unionists endorsed the agreement in a referendum. They, together with the rest of the people of Ireland, Britain and the United States, are done a great disservice by any misrepresentation of these crucial issues. - Yours, etc.,
Frank Durkan, Americans For A New Irish Agenda, Duane Street, New York, USA.