Sir, - Mary Holland (Opinion, October 22nd) quoted F.W. de Klerk, the former South African President, as saying: "If one side walks away with everything, then you have a victor and a vanquished but you don't have a solution. You need a solution in order to secure the settlement."
When I was in South Africa in 1994, I asked F.W. de Klerk how he had handled the decommissioning of weapons by the armed wing of Nelson Mandela's ANC. "We didn't ask for too much clarity", he replied.
As Mary Holland says, "a fudge" in these circumstances is not dishonourable. It is, however, in my view dishonourable if the Unionist Party refuses to form a shadow executive with Sinn Fein Assembly members included before the end of this month, as agreed in the Good Friday settlement. - Yours, etc., Ulick O'Connor,
Fairfield Park, Rathgar, Dublin 6.