Sir, - David Trimble's difficulties about giving ground on decommissioning have to be seen in the context of the compromises that have already been forced on unionists. The Downing Street Declaration of December 1993 said:
"The British and Irish Governments reiterate that the achievement of peace must involve a permanent end to the use of, or support for paramilitary violence. They confirm, that in those circumstances, democratically mandated parties which establish a commitment to exclusively peaceful methods and which have shown that they abide by the democratic process are free to participate fully in democratic politics and to join in dialogue in due course between the governments and the political parties on the way ahead."
Paramilitary violence never stopped. So-called punishment beatings by both republican and loyalist paramilitaries continue to this day, but their political counterparts were nevertheless allowed into the talks. The two governments in effect substituted the term "the use of firearms and explosives" for "paramilitary violence" and were not too strict even about that condition.
It is hard to see what actions short of decommissioning, or at least making a start on it, could "establish a commitment to exclusively peaceful methods". Certainly at the time this phrase was widely interpreted, not just by unionists, to refer to decommissioning. The impasse was removed by Senator Mitchell's compromise that decommissioning and negotiations should take place in parallel, but in the event the negotiations went ahead without decommissioning.
The suggestion that the International Commission should publish a timetable for decommissioning could provide a way through. But all the parties in the Assembly would have to commit themselves to this timetable. It seems reasonable too that Sinn Fein should not be allowed to take its place on the Executive until at least a symbolic start has been made on decommissioning, by handing over some Semtex to the International Commission or destroying it under their supervision. Or, if Sinn Fein is allowed onto the Executive even without such a gesture, it should be on the clear understanding, acknowledged in advance by all the parties, that any failure by republican paramilitaries to keep to the timetable would mean that Sinn Fein would immediately lose its place. - Yours, etc.,
Stephen Plowden,
Albert Street,
London NW1.