Mr John Hume yesterday criticised Sinn Fein over its approach to the Northern peace talks. "Leaving our past behind will require new thinking", he wrote in the Irish News yesterday, regretting the extensive raking-up of the past by the other parties.
Later in the article he specifically criticised Sinn Fein's stance on a Northern assembly.
"A new beginning in our political relationships is what we are about or we are about nothing. The new beginning suggested by the three-stranded agenda necessarily includes new institutions in the North as well as new North-South institutions. The latter cannot be created without the former. A North-South council could not exist without new institutions in the North from which its northern membership would be drawn. By suggesting otherwise Sinn Fein is being either deliberately obstructive or is failing to face reality. The challenge is to build new political institutions together in which the powers remitted to them will be jointly administered and shared by both sections of our people. This will be achieved by involving each community's representatives on the basis of their mandate and in accordance with their electorate strength."