General John de Chastelain, co-chairman of the Northern Ireland peace process, said last night that mechanisms were being put in place to facilitate the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons, after which decommissioning would be a matter for the paramilitaries "just like the ceasefires." General de Chastelain was speaking at the Historical Society in Trinity College, Dublin, where he chaired a debate on the proposition :"That paramilitaries cannot negotiate peace".
Quoting his fellow co-chairman, Senator George Mitchell, General de Chastelain observed that "from August '94 to February '96 there was a ceasefire with no political process; from June '96 to August '97 there was a political process with no two-sided ceasefire; now you have both, and an opportunity to move forward".
Other speakers at the debate included the Ulster Unionist MP, Mr Jeffrey Donaldson, and Dr Martin Mansergh, adviser to the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern.
Mr Donaldson accused the Irish and British governments of reneging on Paragraph 10 of the Downing Street Declaration by allowing paramilitary representatives take part in the peace negotiations.
Because of the violence since Canary Wharf there had been a steady decline in the criteria, required by both governments for attendance at talks, he said. He accused the IRA of repudiating the Mitchell Principles.
Dr Mansergh referred to Mr Doanaldson as "one of the more thoughtful unionist politicians of a younger generation, who by showing determination to remain at the table, are giving real political leadership at this time . . ."
He said that the alternative to violence was political dialogue, not a political vacuum. "All over the world," he observed, "representatives of countries, governments or parties that have not been able to inflict defeat on insurgents, have eventually had to sit down with them . . ." In an aside, Dr Mansergh recalled a chance meeting last June with Ms Mary McAleese, the Fianna Fail/ Progressive Democrat candidate in the presidential election. It was a few days after two policeman had been shot dead in Lurgan. Her attitude to the killings, like his own, had been one of "dismay and incomprehension" given other encouraging signs of progress.
"She had been fully and actively supportive of John Hume's efforts to get the ceasefire restored and to advance the peace process," he said.
