Trimble delivers tough message to Sinn Fein
The leader of the Ulster Unionists issued a strong message to republicans and dissident elements of his own party at the UUP annual conference in Armagh today, repeating his call for the acts of completion to be met in full.
The acts of completion include a deal on decommissioning, paramilitary violence and the winding up of paramilitary cells.
He told delegates: “The issue is simple. Republicans know what has to be done it has been absolutely clear since April. They need to make up their mind. Society cannot be expected to wait for ever.”
The UUP leader said he shared the sentiment of republicans who wanted devolved policing but, he cautioned, it was simply “absurd” for leaders to have any responsibility for policing if they were linked “to a private army!”
Mr Trimble said he would work with Sinn Fein to share power in Northern Ireland, but only in a Northern Ireland that remained “unambiguously part of the United Kingdom.”
“We prefer to remain simply British,” he said.
Mr Trimble told delegates he had shaken hands with Gerry Adams “some months ago” after a deal was reached to secure a peaceful summer in Northern Ireland.
Jeffrey Donaldson, David Burnside and party president the Reverend Martin Smyth, the three “rebel” MPs in his own party, were called upon to fall into line and accept the party whip.
He said they had to decide whether they wanted party membership or the “luxury of independence.”
He said: “Gentlemen, would you please decide whether you prefer to be independent members or if you really do want to be part of a political party?”
Speaking earlier on the BBC, Mr Trimble said: “That is what it comes down to at the end of the day. We have been remarkably patient, we have been very tolerant. I quite welcome debate within the party. But of course what we have here goes far beyond a debate within the party and it is causing intense annoyance and frustration to those people who work loyally for the party.
“We shall see what happens over the course of the next few days.
“There is a contradiction in their position. They are refusing to be part of the parliamentary party, but they say they wish to become part of the Assembly party. Both parties have the same policy, both are subject to the same discipline. There is a contradiction in their stance. I would prefer them to resolve that contradiction.”
He added that the UUP was waiting for republicans “to make up their minds” on whether to embrace the ballot box or the gun.
“They know what they have to do, they know what is necessary for progress, they know what people want and the overwhelming majority of the people of Northern Ireland want this to succeed.”
“But they need to move. We cannot proceed on the basis of having private armies destabilising the process and bringing about, as they did a year ago, the collapse of the institutions.
“We need to see the private armies winding up their activities and as armies going away and that requires a decision. We have had gestures, gestures were worthwhile. We have had a peaceful summer; that is worthwhile. But what we need is to see people go that step further and say `yes, we are putting all of that behind us`.”
Mr. Trimble warned if an agreement with Gerry Adams over the long-term sustainability of the Assembly could not be reached, and the Government decided that elections should go ahead regardless, the outcome would “put the whole process in a difficult position.”
Separately, Mr Trimble and the Sinn Fein President, Gerry Adams, are understood to have held more talks at Stormont on Friday afternoon.
Paul Murphy, Northern Ireland Secretary and Hugh Orde, the chief constable, will be guest speakers at the conference.
The devolved assembly was suspended last October amid suggestions that the IRA has infiltrated Stormont and was running an intelligence operation.
Assembly elections may still take place on 13 November but the UUP wants to Sinn Fein to back decommissioning wholeheartedly before October 16.
