Sir, - John Waters, almost alone among commentators, does not accept that Bertie Ahern meant what he said when he told the Sunday Times: "It is not compatible with being a part of a government, I mean part of an executive, that there is not at least a commencement of decommissioning."
To support this point and prove my literal interpretation wrong, he alludes (Opinion, February 23rd) to Taoiseach's Questions of Tuesday, February 16th in the Dail. However, according to the official record (available on http:// www.irlgov.ie/debates) the Taoiseach says: "I do not detract from what I said in the Sunday Times."
He added, in answer to a question from Prionsias De Rossa: "It is neither reasonable nor politically realistic to argue that the executive or the North-South Council be established without an understanding of how the implementation of the decommissioning part of the agreement will be moved forward."
If Mr Waters puts the Dail record and the Sunday Times interview together, he won't find any contradictions. The drift is that, even though decommissioning is not written into the Belfast Agreement as a precondition, failure to decommission is incompatible with taking part in a government and "it is neither reasonable nor politically realistic" to expect an executive to be formed without decommissioning.
The fact that the Ulster Unionists will not share power with Sinn Fein without decommissioning was repeatedly highlighted by the Taoiseach as an important political reality. However, John Waters cannot jump from this to claim that "the thrust of the Taoiseach's Dail statement .. . was that there is no reason, other than the political obstinancy of the Ulster Unionist Party, why the executive should not be formed complete with Sinn Fein."
Mr Waters's column contains a good deal of abusive criticism of the Sunday Times. While he is entitled to his opinion, even his prejudices, it is unfair to assert that, because a newspaper has taken a robust line against political violence, it is against the peace process. Indeed, any reading of our columns will show that the Sun- day Times has long been a champion of peace and that it urged its readers in the strongest terms to support the Belfast Agreement.
Perhaps it is because of our opposition to the peace process that we were so regularly denounced by "No" campaigners at their rallies during last year's referendum campaign. -Yours, etc., Liam Clarke, Deputy Irish Editor, The Sunday Times.
High Street, Belfast 1.