DUP rejects witness offer
Democratic Unionist Party leader Ian Paisley has rejected calls for him to act as a witness to IRA weapons decommissioning.
The DUP is demanding the IRA submit photographic evidence of decommissioning before the DUP joins Sinn Fein in devolved government in Northern Ireland.
Sinn Fein has said such a process would “humiliate” the IRA.
After meeting Tony Blair at Downing Street yesterday, Mr Paisley said the new initiative would fail to satisfy the people in the province.
“No, no. The man in the street says ‘for me seeing is believing’, and he must see it and see it he will, by the grace of God,” the veteran Protestant leader said.
Mr Paisley said he hoped the British and Irish governments would honour pledges to press for photographs.
“I believe that the way forward is for the Government to keep their obligation to us. They put in their paper that there would have to be photographs and they have got to stand over that,” he said.
His words came after Sinn Fein MP Martin McGuinness called on the DUP to meet Gerry Adams.
“So, let us set to one side all of the diversions and recriminations of recent days and concentrate on the substance of what has been achieved. The opportunity to make a defining leap forward exists. Let’s not lose it.
“Ian Paisley should agree to meet Gerry Adams. The two should sit down together and find a way of sorting this out,” he said.
Reacting to the request, Mr Paisley said: “If people have guns, if they are engaged in terrorism and criminal activities, I will not sit down with them. They are terrorists. If they give up their guns, if they cease their criminal activity, I will sit down with them, if they are elected with a proper franchise.”
“Unfortunately the IRA are holding on to their guns.
“Therefore I do not sit down with Gerry Adams. That is the strength of my position.”
Mr Paisley is expected to return to No 10 next week for more discussions.
Meanwhile, Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy and Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern will meet with parties at Hillsborough Castle in County Down on Wednesday to discuss proposals to restart the stalled peace process.
Mr Paisley said the DUP would decline to join talks unless Irish premier Bertie Ahern recanted a position made on Monday that photographic evidence was not a necessary precondition for a lasting settlement.
“All I can say is that Bertie Ahern has apologised. I await what he says tomorrow. If he repeats tomorrow in the Dail what he said to me personally, then the DUP will meet the foreign secretary of his government tomorrow,” he said.
Northern Ireland Secretary, Paul Murphy, whilst acknowledging photographs appeared “very, very important” for intelligence updates on the status of weapons dumps, said the talks at Hillsborough Castle would explore whether there “may be some way to get around the use of photographs by some other method”.
