Sinn FΘin and the Ulster Unionist Party engaged in a further bout of recriminations yesterday with Mr Gerry Adams issuing pessimistic soundings about the prospects of an IRA gesture on arms.
The disagreement continued as further elements of the Belfast Agreement are about to fall into place. Today the British government is due to announce the nine independent members of the Policing Board while the proposals for criminal justice reform are expected shortly, possibly next week.
The Sinn FΘin president yesterday deplored the plan by the UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, to lodge an Assembly motion in the coming few weeks seeking to expel Sinn FΘin's two ministers from the Executive in the absence of IRA decommissioning.
If the motion fails, Mr Trimble will withdraw his three ministers from the Executive.
The motion was making it "more difficult" to persuade the IRA to move on arms, said Mr Adams. "We recognise the need to put arms beyond use and we have exhausted ourselves to get progress on the issue of IRA weapons, but at every point when it appears that progress is possible, the unionists do something to make the process more difficult. And the British government persists in pandering to the unionist veto."
He believed the institutions of the Belfast Agreement could imminently crumble. "In my view, even if progress is achieved on IRA weapons, the institutions will still face collapse because the unionists are not prepared to commit wholeheartedly to them."
A UUP spokesman dismissed Mr Adams's comments. "I am afraid that that particular record has been played a few times too often. Republicans need to realise that the Ulster Unionist Party is serious about decommissioning. It is not going to let go and republicans need to face up to that reality," he said.
The spokesman would make no comment on a claim by Northern Ireland Unionist Party MLA Mr Cedric Wilson that the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, had asked Mr Trimble to postpone his motion for two or three weeks to provide some additional time to determine if the IRA would move on arms.
Mr Wilson said Mr Trimble yesterday confirmed to him that Mr Blair had requested him to delay the motion. This, claimed Mr Wilson, was to "facilitate a fudge" on decommissioning.
While the UUP is two or three short of the necessary 30 signatories to table the motion, the UUP spokesman said there would be no difficulty finding the additional names. The DUP is seeking to table a similar motion and is anxious to be seen taking the lead in seeking to expel Sinn FΘin from government.
"Basically it comes down to our list of signatures is bigger than your list of signatures," said the SDLP finance minister, Mr Mark Durkan. He confirmed the SDLP would not support the motion, thus ensuring it would fail because it would not meet the requirement of cross-community party support.
He described the UUP motion as a "stunt designed for internal unionist consumption". One pro-agreement Ulster Unionist MLA said Mr Trimble had no option but to threaten to withdraw from the Executive, "otherwise we would be facing into another Ulster Unionist Council meeting called by our No wing that could provoke an even greater crisis".
"The British government should not be deflected or distracted by the exclusion motion and by the same token republicans should not use it as a reason not to decommission," said Mr Durkan.
