The Irish and British governments have the responsibility to initiate moves to exclude Sinn Fein from the Northern Ireland Executive if the circumstances require it, it was claimed today.
Just hours after Mr David Trimble's resignation as Northern Ireland First Minister over lack of progress on IRA disarmament, Deputy First Minister Mr Seamus Mallon said the expulsion of republicans from ministerial office was not a matter solely for his party.
Asked if there were any circumstances in which the SDLP would press for the removal of Mr Martin McGuinness and Ms Bairbre de Brun from the executive, Mr Mallon argued people were missing the point.
Mr Mallon said: "You are asking me a totally hypothetical situation which ignores the section of the agreement in the legislation which gives the Secretary of State (Dr John Reid) the power to require the Speaker to put a motion in the Assembly. That has not happened.
"Given the nature of the Good Friday Agreement that wouldn't happen unless it had the support of the Irish Government, nor would it be realistic unless it had the support of the political parties. So the onus actually rests with the two governments. That onus has to be realised. The onus rests with the two governments."
Mr Mallon, who will have to seek re-election to his post along with Mr David Trimble in the Assembly in six weeks time, would not be drawn on whether he believed both would be returned.
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But he said the Ulster Unionist Party would have to decide where it stood on the Belfast Agreement. He said: "Only David Trimble can answer that question. I cannot answer that. I make no judgment on that. That is for members of the Ulster Unionist Party to decide. My simple observation would be either one is in favour of the Agreement or not. Any political party cannot be half in or half out of it."
With the parties and Irish and British governments preparing for intense negotiations aimed at breaking the deadlock over disarmament, policing reform, demilitarisation and the operation of the institutions, Mr Mallon said all the issues needed to be addressed in their totality and not used as "bargaining chips".
Mr Mallon, who will continue to perform the functions as Deputy First Minister until the Assembly vote, repeated his call on the IRA to disarm for the sake of the process.
The retention of weapons, he argued, flew in the face of the demands of the Irish people in referenda on the Belfast Agreement.It was also in contravention of Irish law, Northern Ireland law and the accord itself. "I have heard all kinds of excuses, spurious reasons - almost unlimited. The reality is that it is required by the Irish people to do so."
But he also acknowledged with one week to go before the controversial Drumcree march the political climate could be difficult for the talks.
"`I think it was pertinent that the last political action of the former First Minister was a meeting with the Parades Commission in which he is reported as having asked the Parades Commission to allow the march to proceed down the Garvaghy Road.
"There is obviously a very substantial security problem. If I could put it this way. Drumcree may not necessarily happen in Drumcree. The effects of it could be felt everywhere. We saw what happened in Coleraine, Larne, in north Belfast, Antrim and in various other towns and villages throughout Northern Ireland. So to say it is a dangerous and difficult time is to put it mildly."
PA