24 October 2001
Prime Minister
Good evening everyone.
For three and a half years, since the 10th of April 1998, we have worked for this moment. This is a move today of fundamental significance to Northern Ireland, for relations between the communities of Northern Ireland, for Britain, and also for the wider world. Whatever the setbacks, whatever the impasses, whatever the strains and stresses of constant negotiation and dialogue and bargaining, this is a peace process, that despite it all is today working.
I know that people suffer almost from a fatigue of historic events, or at least claims of them. Yet, it is just worth thinking for a moment, and thinking of where we are today and comparing it with what people would have thought within any shape or form possible 10 years ago. It is not just that the Agreement of 10 April is being implemented in all its parts, and what people actually voted for is being delivered, it is far more profound than that. The principle of consent that the future of Northern Ireland rests with the democratically expressed wishes of the people of Northern Ireland is accepted and agreed by all the main political parties. The Republic of Ireland yielding up their territorial claim to Northern Ireland, and the Nationalist community’s aspiration to a united Ireland recognised in bodies covering North and South.
A directly elected Assembly producing the government of Northern Ireland. That government which can now be properly re-established, representing Unionist, Nationalist, and Republican parties sitting alongside each other, working together. A new start to policing and criminal justice capable of commanding support across community divides is now under way. 70% of Northern Ireland with no troops stationed, and a real process of normalisation in areas still marked by intrusive security now possible and able to be achieved. The British and Irish Governments working together, getting on with each other, not just in respect of Northern Ireland, but in the European Union in a way again that would have been considered unimaginable some years ago, Britain and Ireland closer today than at any time in our history. And now weapons being put beyond use in accordance with the Decommissioning Commission’s remit, something thought utterly unthinkable, even a few years ago. Politics is working.
I pay tribute to the Republican leadership, to Gerry Adams, to Martin McGuinness in particular for the boldness and the courage of this move. It has been done, not out of weakness but from the strength that comes from recognition that there is a new dispensation, that we can resolve differences politically, and that the only aims that ever should, or indeed really ever can, succeed are those pursued by democratic and peaceful debate.
Now of course there will still be difficulties and differences. It is a peace process. It is not some single event that ends all the difficulties of the past, but it is a process that can now move forward again. All paramilitary organisations should follow suit. The Loyalist organisations said they would wait for the IRA. They can, and they must now move on this issue, and the killing and terrorising of the innocent must stop. There will of course be dangers too from the wreckers, Loyalist and splinter Republican groups who do not want change, or prefer to take refuge in the past. They should realise that they have absolutely no support in the wider community at all for the continuing campaign of violence. But they will try to inflict terror in order to derail what has been achieved.
Then of course there will be the cynics. The people who have offered no serious alternative to the 10th of April 1998 Agreement, who refuse to recognise the magnitude of the changes that it has brought about, and it has taken real leadership to get here from nationalist leaders like John Hume and Seamus Mallon, and from the Ulster Unionists, in particular from David Trimble who has been attacked, often vilified but who has taken the risks that need to be taken and who has remained steadfast to his principles and his convictions throughout. I simply say we should not let either the wreckers or the cynics win.
Of course, again, this process isn’t perfect. It has had, as you know, and as I know, its share of hard choices, even unpleasant compromises and inconsistencies. Of course, if you are living in one of the communities like North Belfast, mired still in conflict, the peace process seems hollow. But for the majority of people in Northern Ireland today life is better. Look at the investment, the extra jobs, look at Belfast City and enjoy it. Look above all at the lives that have been saved. Yes, the peace process isn’t perfect, but it is a darn sight better than the alternative, which is no process at all.
In the Middle East, indeed as we speak, we see what no process means: bloodshed, grief, daily funerals, bitterness and hatred, a furious cycle of attack and counter-attack. The only thing that is certain is that when the violence ends, so the dead bodies will be greater and the hatred more intense. The issues will remain the same and the only way of resolving them, namely through dialogue, will also remain the same. So, with our own peace process in Northern Ireland today, I hope we can be forgiven for indulging in hope. It is in short enough supply in our world not to celebrate it when we have it. Let us hope that for the people of Northern Ireland a new era is indeed beckoning where people can live together freely in solidarity, tolerance and respect.
We should remember those who have died in the troubles. Catholics and Protestants. Activists and those with no political connection. RUC men and women, soldiers, people whose deaths inspired us to try to create a better and different way forward for the future. We are a long way from finishing our journey. But a very significant milestone has been passed. Thank you.
Question
Prime Minister, a lot of people will be asking precisely what the IRA is giving up, and how they can be sure that these weapons have been put beyond use, and are they going to have to rely on neutral statements from outsiders that this issue has been resolved, or are they going to know a little bit more about what is actually being done on the ground?
Prime Minister
The report issued by the Independent Commission on Decommissioning, I think you will find that the answers are given there. Both that an act in accordance with the Decommissioning Commission Scheme has been carried out, that the act is significant, that the material that has been involved in that act covers the main areas that you would expect it to cover, and this is now a process that is best left to the Independent Commission on Decommissioning to take forward.
Question
Prime Minister, what if any part was played by the revulsion following the attacks on 11 September?
Prime Minister
Well, I hope and believe that in the end people would have come to this view in any event, but I do think that everyone now understands that there is no place for trying to resolve difficulties through terrorism. But I do genuinely believe that this is something we have worked for, for a long period of time. I know we have had many situations in which we have thought that we were getting there, and did not. So I believe, and hope, that they would have happened in any event, but I think that this is a different world in which we live post-11 September. My hope for instance is rather different, that what we are managing to do in Northern Ireland sends a wider signal out that in fact if there is constant dialogue and negotiation, even though it is hellishly difficult for large parts of the time. Not everyone here, but certainly some of you, will have been at press conferences where we think we are about to get somewhere, and then we don’t. And then we have to come back for further negotiations, there are days of intensive talks and we have all devoted, I have devoted, everyone has devoted, an enormous amount of our time to this process. The Irish Taoiseach, whose contribution to this has been absolutely magnificent, has devoted an enormous amount of time to this. But in the end it is worth it, one when we can actually make progress, and two when we see what the alternative is. And I think we only need to look across at the Middle East and see what the alternative is when the process breaks down.
Question
What would you say to people in Northern Ireland who are sceptical of this statement from the IRA, and what is your advice to those Unionists who just aren’t sure whether or not David Trimble should go back into the executive.
Prime Minister
Whether David goes back in, is obviously a matter for him, although I believe that the basis for him doing so is now there. I don’t think the people of Northern Ireland need take the IRA statement. What they should however accept is the statement by the Decommissioning Commission. And I think that will be of considerable persuasive effect for them. And I know people are cynical. People are of course cynical about the whole of a process that in a sense on the 10th of April 1998 people thought at that point in time, everything would suddenly ….. two days later everything would be sorted out. But it was never going to be like that. And as the process has gone on, and I don’t know how many times we spent days on end negotiating about this, there is a sort of weariness that can set in, but we are dealing with issues that have divided people for centuries, certainly decades, and inevitably people wonder can we really be sure that the progress that seems to be there is actually being made. But I think if you went back a few years ago and said that we would have all these things achieved, that we have achieved so far in the three and a half years since April 1998, I think people would have been genuinely pretty surprised. And so what I say to people is, you can be sceptical about any situation, but maybe the right thing today to be is hopeful.
Question
Prime Minister, are you convinced that as far as the Provisional IRA are concerned the war is now over and if so, how will the British Government reciprocate today’s move.
Prime Minister
Well, it is very important that people understand, and I hope that the significance of today’s move that people have a complete commitment to democratic and peaceful means, and of course if that is so, that allows us to make our response to that, and that has got to be a generous response as well because we want to create a situation in which Northern Ireland is a community which, whatever the differences very particular to Northern Ireland, people can live with normal policing, normal security measures, live normal lives. And I believe that today’s move is obviously a very, very significant step in allowing them to do that.
Question
You imply that this a very important staging post along the route to peace. What are the next steps? You talk about normalising the police situation. How is that possible given the violence we have seen on the streets of Belfast recently?
Prime Minister
Well, there will be acts of violence that still occur because there are people who will bitterly oppose the peace process from both sides. My response to that the whole time is, don’t let them determine what the rest of us do. They are the people who want to wreck the whole process. So when they do these acts of violence our response should not be to say oh well, in that case the process has got no point to it. Our response should be, that’s what makes the process worthwhile. To have a police service that can command the support of all sides of the community, and I think we are on the way to that. There are tremendous difficulties, and the officers of the RUC undergoing this process of change at the moment, it is very, very hard indeed. But we do need to make progress on that, and we can do, and those people that carry on using violence have got to understand now they are completely adrift from any substantial part of any community in Northern Ireland. And I think that today’s developments allow that to be brought home to people forcibly. But we shouldn’t be under any illusions about this. Of course there will still be difficulties along the way and we are some distance off the end of our journey in this, but what you can say is that we have made very considerable progress and today’s milestone is one that frankly I think a lot of people thought we would never pass.
Question
If this is effectively the IRA saying that their war is over, in what form will the reciprocal moves from the British Government take? I am thinking particularly of watch-towers, of troop levels, of army bases closing.
Prime Minister
Well, obviously it is the case that if the threat is reduced and the security position is improved, and this is a big step in that direction, then of course we can, and will, make a response because it is not in our interests to have security that is intrusive, that is difficult for people, that creates problems in local communities. On the other hand we have to protect people. So this is something of course that we will want to respond to.
Question
Prime Minister, there may be people listening to your words, to John de Chastellain’s words later on, and they still want to know, what has actually happened? Have the weapons been destroyed? Are they never going to be used again? Is the IRA no longer an army? What in layman’s terms are you telling people has happened to this body that has bombed and shot its way round Britain and Northern Ireland for so many years?
Prime Minister
Well the most important thing to realise is that it is not what I say at all, but there is a Commission that has been appointed. That has been unable to make a report of the nature it is making today for, what, three and a half years. Today it has made it. And what it said is that the weapons are completely and verifiably beyond use, and that is defined in legislation. So the Decommissioning Commission’s remit is defined by legislation. What they have to be satisfied is defined in legislation and the scheme that they have agreed has to be within the terms of the legislation. Now I think that is pretty much tied down, and bound in.
Question
Prime Minister, those who are prepared to decommission still have the long-term political aim of a united Ireland, something which the Irish Government has given up the right to, as it were. Is this a long-term problem?
Prime Minister
No, I think people are perfectly entitled to have a view that there should be a united Ireland. What we have always said is that it is a view that should be pursued peacefully, and I think we now have a framework within which people do that, because at the heart of the Belfast, or Good Friday Agreement, is the notion that the principle of consent, namely that there should be no change to the constitutional status of Northern Ireland without the consent, freely given, of the people of Northern Ireland, that consent is at the heart of the agreement, and that is why …. Look, underneath all the language and the detail of the agreement is this very simple concept that there has to be the notion of consent, that democracy rules, not violence, and alongside that there has to be justice and equality for all communities and a recognition of the fact that in Northern Ireland you have a substantial group of people who want a united Ireland, but the agreement is everything is pursued whether the maintenance of the UK, or a united Ireland by peaceful means. And in the end, what has really been accepted by everybody is that there is no solution to this issue of a military kind. Violence offers no way forward. We are never going to change Northern Ireland by violence. That is why when all the violence finishes, people always come back to the same issues and questions. And the question is do you carry on killing people, and then talk, or do you decide to stop the killing and talk straightaway. And that is what we did in April 1998, and what we have done since then is try and drive out the possibilities of a return to violence and make good the principles set out in that Agreement and I think still, as I always say to people, of course it is difficult, but it is better than the alternative, and in fact when you look underneath feelings in Northern Ireland, even though there are people in parts of the community that are very sceptical about the process, I think if you really ask people in Northern Ireland would you prefer to live today in Northern Ireland than where it was 10 years ago, they would say they prefer to live today. Now of course you have situations as in North Belfast where people are in particular situations where they will still be very angry and see real conflict in the community, but on the whole I think that change has taken root, and I genuinely believe that there is a very good chance that it is there to stay.
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