Finnish talks highlighted parallels between Iraq and the North, writes Gerry Moriarty, Northern Editor
The idea of former Northern Ireland political and paramilitary enemies such as Martin McGuinness, Jeffrey Donaldson and Billy Hutchinson - still hardly friends - advising warring Iraqi factions in Finland on how to reach a peace settlement caused surprise and some cynicism.
That response was probably best exemplified on BBC Radio Ulster yesterday morning by journalist Robert Fisk, who suspected that the Iraqi contingent for the Finnish talks came from the relative safety of Baghdad's Green Zone and were not serious players.
Not so, insisted the likes of Deputy First Minister McGuinness, DUP MP Donaldson and Quintin Oliver of the Strata/gem political lobby group in Belfast, which led the successful Yes campaign for the 1998 Belfast Agreement.
The 16 Iraqis at the secluded forest venue three hours northeast of Helsinki weren't just Green Zone people, said Oliver. "There were Shia and Sunni political representatives nominated by the Iraqi vice-presidents at the talks.
"There was one Iraqi minister there. There were also Sadrists [ those loyal to the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr] and people close to the militias and insurgents," he explained. Al-Qaeda was excluded.
"The Iraqi representatives were not the top Iraqi decision- makers," Oliver added, "but they were people who would be listened to with real seriousness by the leaders from the different sides when they returned to Iraq.
"The work of getting the people to Finland, ensuring safe passage and so on, was phenomenal. Representatives of the Iraqis in the talks room were killing each other in Iraq during our four days of talks," he said.
Also with McGuinness, Donaldson and Oliver from Northern Ireland were former Progressive Unionist Party Assembly member and former UVF prisoner, Billy Hutchinson, Lord Alderdice of the Independent Monitoring Commission and former IRA prisoner Leo Green.
Also present were senior South African figures including former minister Roelf Meyer and Mac Maharaj of the ANC.
According to McGuinness, Donaldson and Oliver, the Iraqis realised the significance of Sinn Féin, DUP and PUP representatives being able to sit down together to offer the benefit of their experience in coming out of more than 30 years of conflict.
The general line from the Northern Ireland representatives was that they had no tailor-made answers for the Iraqis; that they were there to help if they could. Furthermore, they were available for the future, if required. But, they all stressed, what emerged from Finland was important and could yet be the draft blueprint, at least, for a future deal in Iraq.
For the first couple of days, the drill mainly was the Iraqis asking questions of the South African and Irish peace processors. Gradually, too, over the four days the different Iraqi factions started talking to each other.
In the end, the Northern Ireland and South African people were surprised that the Iraqis decided that documentation about the possible way forward must emerge from the talks.
This was the so-called "Helsinki Agreement", which on the surface is an over-hyped title because clearly there was no actual agreement.
But the potential parallels with Northern Ireland are numerous here. For instance, last October's St Andrews Agreement did not become a de facto agreement until March when Gerry Adams and Ian Paisley decided to endorse it. Neither will the "Helsinki Agreement" have real effect until the warring factions decide for themselves that the time is right for a settlement.
Such is the scale of the horror in Iraq, getting to that stage will be hugely difficult. But what appeared to have been achieved in Finland, as Donaldson put it, was a "road map" for future reasonably inclusive negotiations modelled on the Northern peace process.
These incorporate recommendations such as the Mitchell Principles on non- violence and democracy, a decommissioning body and an acceptance that negotiations can only happen during a ceasefire by all combatants.
No one is so foolish as to be over-optimistic about what happened in Finland last weekend and what may flow from that initiative. However, equally it seems clear that lessons can be learned from the Northern Ireland and South African experiences.