Transcript of Press Conference on the Peace Process by Tony Blair, then British Prime Minister, 10 Downing Street, (1 May 2003)

Transcript of Press Conference on the Peace Process by Tony Blair, then British Prime Minister, 10 Downing Street, (1 May 2003)

PRIME MINISTER: (Tony Blair)

Good afternoon everyone. This is not the statement I wish I was making to you, but it is the statement I feel I have to make. As you know, Paul Murphy, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, is making a Statement now in the House of Commons. He will make a further Statement next week.

I just want to describe for a moment to you the background to the position we find ourselves in. Last October I made a speech which essentially said that the process of transition had to come to an end, and we needed what I called "acts of completion" by all the parties. In other words we had to make sure that all the remaining stages of the Good Friday Agreement were implemented, and implemented fully. And then began a period of intensive negotiations involving the two governments and the main parties which has resulted in the two governments agreeing a Joint Declaration which covers all the main issues. It covers policing and its devolution to Northern Ireland, criminal justice changes, the security of the institutions, normalisation - demilitarisation in other people's words, the issue of sanctions and verification of all the commitments given, issues to do with human rights and equality. Dealing with the issues of the so-called "on-the-runs", and obviously an end to paramilitary activity.

The British and Irish Governments will publish the Joint Declaration today, and people can see the full extent of the proposals. And basically the Joint Declaration means the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement dealing with all the outstanding issues.

So what is the problem? As you will see, Paragraph 13 of the Joint Declaration reads as follows: Paramilitarism and sectarian violence therefore must be brought to an end from whichever part of the community they come. We need to see an immediate, full and permanent cessation of all paramilitary activity, including military attacks, training, targeting, intelligence-gathering, acquisition or development of arms or weapons, other preparations for terrorist campaigns, punishment beatings, and attacks and involvement in riots. Moreover the practice of exiling must come to an end, and the exiled must feel free to return in safety. Similarly, sectarian attacks and intimidation directed at vulnerable communities must cease. That was Paragraph 13 of the Joint Declaration. As I say you will be able to see the full text of it when we publish it later today.

Now of course that requires paramilitary activity from any part of the community to cease and I am well aware of the fact that some of the worst examples of paramilitary activity have come from so-called Loyalists. But the difference is that Sinn Fein and the IRA are linked organisations, and Sinn Fein is actually in government, or wanting to be in government, in Northern Ireland. So in respect of both the two governments and the other political parties it is absolutely vital, according to the Good Friday Agreement, that if a party is in government, that it is only exclusively peaceful means used to further political ends, and of course all the activities listed in Paragraph 13 will be wholly contrary to the Good Friday Agreement.

We therefore needed clear undertakings to this end. The first was that the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement and the Joint Declaration would mean the end of the conflict, of course conditional on all sides following their part of the Agreement, but if we the governments and the others did what we said then others would do what they say and make sure that the war was over, and over completely. Secondly we need an undertaking that the process of putting arms beyond use through the International Commission on Decommissioning would be completed in the sense that all arms would be put beyond use. And thirdly we needed a very clear, very specific undertaking that from now on all the activities listed in Paragraph 13 of the Joint Declaration would cease completely. And the reason for that undertaking is that unfortunately up to this point they have not ceased completely, despite the Good Friday Agreement.

We discussed obviously the Joint Declaration with the parties. Three weeks ago we got a draft IRA statement. The truth is that that statement did not adequately answer any of these questions. It was, it is fair to say, an advance. It was a lot more advanced than any of the IRA statements I have read in the past few years, but it was not a statement of completion.

So began a negotiation. Finally, in an effort to flush the issues out, frankly, I asked the three questions last week. The IRA said that they would not respond. The leadership of Sinn Fein, in the person Gerry Adams, said that they would, and he did, and again after much to-ing and fro-ing two questions were answered. But the third was not answered, so there was further negotiation, further partial clarification. Now it is important to realise what has happened. Both governments have asked for a categorical statement that the activities listed in that Paragraph 13 of the Joint Declaration - to do with the targeting and the punishment beatings, and the exiling and so on - that those activities from now on will not be authorised by the IRA leadership. Not a general assurance, but a very particular undertaking. And not for some vague reason, but for the very specific reason that each of these activities unfortunately up to now, despite the Good Friday Agreement, has been happening. That's why, as you know, we have had the difficulties over Castlereagh or Stormont, or Colombia and so on.

Finally, yesterday afternoon, Gerry Adams did respond and said that the IRA leadership and I quote "Is determined there will be no activities which will undermine the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement. That's the general assurance. But there was point-blank refusal to rule out expressly the activities stated in Paragraph 13 of the Joint Declaration. I gather that Gerry Adams has said earlier today, well what part of no activities, the words no activities. What part of no activities do they not understand? Well the answer to that I am afraid is very clear. The answer is, the activities listed in Paragraph 13, because that's what we have asked for. Will those activities continue to be authorised or not by the IRA? Yes or no. It's not a desperately complicated situation, but it is one that requires a very clear answer. And despite some of the comment, this is not a game of words. The difference is not in the realm of the superficial or the surreal, it goes to the very soul of the Good Friday Agreement and is utterly real in its implications for the people in Northern Ireland. What is more, there is no mystery about what we wanted. Reading some of the comment in the past few days, it's almost as if people may think we have been sitting here as the Sinn Fein have provided more and more drafts, and we have just been saying no. But we have actually been trying to help produce clear answers, and the fact is each question was clear, the purpose clear, the meaning clear, the natural answer clear in terms of the Good Friday Agreement, and frankly three weeks ago, had we got clear answers, particularly of those answers that come direct from the IRA, it would have been sorted. The fact that three weeks on there is still ambiguity is actually itself a worry.

So the question now is do we go to elections where at present there can be no Executive after an election, an Assembly, but no government. Or do we accept the reality that until the election can fulfil its meaning, namely as the basis for devolved government, the election fails its essential purpose. I believe it is a difficult judgement, but I have to make it that if we have the election now without agreement we will simply make eventual agreement, and the eventual basis for devolved government in Northern Ireland. In other words we will frustrate the very purpose of the Good Friday Agreement.

We have therefore decided to postpone the election until the Autumn. I wanted to postpone it for shorter period of time but I think everybody knows for very obvious reasons why, over the Summer months, it is probably not a good idea to hold the election at that point, but we will hold it as soon as we possibly can in the autumn.

Three other things that I should say to you. We are going to publish the Joint Declaration today. There was some hesitation over this, but I thought in the end, and the Taoiseach thought also, we might as well show people what it is that was on offer. I hope very much frankly, that the IRA statement is published too. There is no point in this argument carrying on with in a sense the politicians in the know, but the public not. I think that if that statement is published I think, and I hope, people will see why we had to seek the clarification that we did, and it is not a question of us sitting unreasonably here and saying here's a clear statement, but we're just not accepting it. I think people will understand why we needed that clarification.

Meantime, I should say, we will push on delivering as much of the Joint Declaration as we can in the absence of devolved government. So on issues to do, for example, with some aspects of policing, equality in human rights, some aspects of normalisation we will push on and do what we can.

Now, just two final points. First of all, I will go to Dublin next Tuesday and see the Taoiseach and the Irish Government, and I am well aware of the difficulties this decision causes them, and I would like to place on record once again my immense admiration and respect for Bertie Aherne and the work that he has done in the past few months and his extraordinary endeavours to bring this to a proper conclusion. I can truthfully say this peace process would have no prospect of success at all now or in the future without his input, and I sincerely thank him for that.

Secondly, in relation to the leadership of both the Ulster Unionists and Sinn Fein, I just want to say these words. I have no doubt at all that had we got clear answers to those questions a few weeks ago David Trimble would have cut the deal and we would have been in a different situation. And I know there will be people, particularly in Nationalist Ireland, particularly in the South, who will say what this shows is that David Trimble is not really serious about making this work. I have no doubt at all that he is serious about making it work. I just think people have got to bear in mind one thing. We are now 5 years on from the Good Friday Agreement. 5 years ago it was in my view acceptable for us to say to David Trimble, look the IRA is going through a process of transition, you should be prepared to be in government even though that process of transition has to work its way through. I think it is not unreasonable for him to say after 5 years that the process of transition has to end, and actually from the two governments point of view it is important to us as it is to him. We need to know that if there is going to be a devolved government in Northern Ireland it is on the basis that every single party sitting in that government is fully, completely committed to exclusively peaceful means, and so are the organisations associated with them.

The other thing I wanted to say is about the Sinn Fein leadership. Again, I have no doubt at all that Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness will use some very harsh words today as I would expect them to do. I think they have performed an extraordinary feat over these past few years. I think they have brought Republicanism and the peace process a very long way, and I know that they have tried immensely hard over these past few weeks to bring this to a successful conclusion. But in the end what I was trying to do last October was to say to everybody, we had a certain amount of creative ambiguity that helped us. It doesn't help us anymore. And it is a different world today. A different world in Northern Ireland, a different world outside of Northern Ireland, and if we want this peace process to succeed, it has got to be on the basis that everyone is very clear. We can have as much political argument and political debate as we like, it can be as bitter and acrimonious as political debate often is, but in the end all problems are from now on resolved politically. They are not resolved by a mixture of politics and paramilitary activity. Now that is the truth. That is what has got to happen, and that is why we called for acts of completion, and you will see from the Joint Declaration just how far we were going to go as governments in order to make sure that all the legitimate, natural concerns of people in Northern Ireland were dealt with and that Joint Declaration still provides the basis for the completion of the Good Friday Agreement, and for Northern Ireland to have real normality. But it has to be on a basis that is clear, plain, and builds confidence in every part of the community.

QUESTION:

Considering the anger within the Republican community, and you have praised Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, but do you believe that they are unable or unwilling to deliver what the governments need?

PRIME MINISTER: (Tony Blair)

I believe that they want to deliver this, and know that it is important that it happens, but these are difficult problems in management, and part of the problem in Northern Ireland - I see it from all sides because I am dealing with all the parties - but everyone has their difficulties of political management and the trouble is they have got to realise that other people have their difficulties of political management, and it has been very, very difficult for David Trimble after weeks of unclear answers to questions that really should be easy to answer, it is hard for him in the swirl of an election campaign to make the progress that is needed and that's why I think we have to have this pause in order for people to really sort out the last bits of this. But I have got no doubt at all that in the end Republicanism knows that their cause of a united Ireland, which they are perfectly entitled to have, can only ever be pursued or achieved by peaceful means. There is no other way of doing it and what we need to do is to bring that inner reality out into the open and make sure that the actions are consistent with it.

QUESTION:

You said that you were minded to hold the election in the Autumn. Have you got a definite date in mind, or is essentially your message to the parties, cut a deal first and when we have got viable institutions we'll hold an election? And also from the voters' perspective, what would you say to voters in Northern Ireland who might say, it's all very well what you are trying to achieve with the IRA-Sinn Fein and the Ulster Unionists, but don't we, as voters, have a democratic right to pass our verdict on the politicians, irrespective of whether the British and Irish Governments like the answer we give?

PRIME MINISTER: (Tony Blair)

On the first question, we will discuss that with the Irish Government when we meet on Tuesday, but obviously I would like to do it as quickly as possible. Secondly, I hope people realise that there would be little point in having an election if there was no prospect of getting a government out of it. We elect people to the UK Parliament and a government appears. We elect people to the Scottish Parliament or the Welsh Assembly and you have Scottish and Welsh executives that come out of it. The truth is with Northern Ireland it has always been a more difficult and complicated situation. There is no possibility at the moment of having an elected government out of it, and if anyone believes that the DUP would offer an elected government, that is complete pie in the sky. They have made it absolutely clear that they want fundamentally to destroy the Good Friday Agreement, which is really what they mean when they talk about renegotiating it, and they say they will have nothing whatever to do with the Republic of Ireland Government. Well that is a recipe for complete and total chaos. So the reality is, I am afraid, unless we get an agreement, we don't have a government.

QUESTION:

Just on the DUP and Ian Paisley in particular, you talked about people crowing in another context, but he is going to be crowing loudest, isn't he? He is going to be saying I told you so. The Republicans would never deliver. I've been right, and what's more when I've been proved right I've been denied the chance of a democratic mandate.

PRIME MINISTER: (Tony Blair)

Well, first of all he has not been proved right on any aspect of this. What he said was that the IRA would never make any attempts to move towards peace at all, and he has been proved emphatically wrong. The fact is we have come an enormous long way in the last

6 years. To anyone who says Northern Ireland has not improved or changed in the last

6 years, I think it would be impossible to sustain that argument. Secondly it is not denying people their democratic mandate, it is actually recognising the fact that unless there is some prospect of getting a government after the election, you are simply electing people to the Assembly for nothing, and they are just going to be sitting around and I think that a lot of people in Northern Ireland will think that's a slightly odd thing to do. So what is important is to make sure that we have a clear prospect of a government coming out of that, otherwise as I say it will be like electing me to the UK Parliament but with no prospect of a government ever being formed.

QUESTION:

....did that shape your thinking in any way about whether to go ahead?

PRIME MINISTER: (Tony Blair)

Well, I hope that anybody that seriously believed that if you ended up with the DUP in a position of authority after the election he would have any prospect of getting progress in Northern Ireland on a cross-party basis, the remarks of Mr Paisley the other day which I thought were appalling should convince people otherwise. The fact of the matter is the Good Friday Agreement is not going to be renegotiated. It is the only chance, it has been the only show in town for the last 6 years. It remains the only show in town, and we have got to find a way through it and of course it is frustrating and difficult. As I say I wish I wasn't coming here and saying these things to you, but the fact is we have got to get a clear basis for moving forward and the only clear basis is that everybody accepts the process of transition has ended and there has to be a complete cessation of paramilitary activity from any party connected with a paramilitary organisation that sits in government.

QUESTION:

Prime Minister, what happens though if you don't get that clarity though over the Summer. You come to the Autumn, and you have got to hold the elections, all you have done in fact is push the blockage further down the pipeline isn't it?

PRIME MINISTER: (Tony Blair)

Well you see the problem with this is the Assembly is part of a package. The Assembly is a part of the institutions plural for Northern Ireland under the Good Friday Agreement and the Assembly is there so that out of the Assembly elections comes the government. Now of course it is correct in a sense by putting it back you are delaying the time of the election, but on the other hand, as I say, since the only purpose of having the Assembly ultimately is so that you can have a government for Northern Ireland out of it because they are all linked these institutions, but I think it is important that we get the agreement now.

QUESTION:

Does that mean that if, by the Autumn, you still haven't got what you want to hear from the IRA or from the Sinn Fein leadership that you are going to postpone the elections again because if you go ahead, you still won't get a government out of it, will you?

PRIME MINISTER: (Tony Blair)

No, I accept that, but I am not saying that we postpone them in all sets of circumstances. But here we are in a set of circumstances now, where over the past few weeks - I think I said to you the other day it was frustratingly close - we are not starting from scratch here. We have got the Joint Declaration. I think you will see when it is published it deals with absolutely everything. There is literally one outstanding issue. Or there is one outstanding issue maybe, but then because of what has happened there is the need for the Ulster Unionists to provide real reassurance that if this outstanding issue is resolved, then the institutions will be back and up and running again.

QUESTION:

Are you saying the elections will go ahead in the Autumn no matter what?

PRIME MINISTER: (Tony Blair)

I am saying to you - I think we had all these questions when we had the previous postponement - and my desire and intention certainly is to have the election in the early Autumn. As I say, I would like to discuss this further with the Irish Government on Tuesday before we start speculating on the future.

QUESTION:

Do you however in a new situation in the Autumn insist on absolutely every detail of the present Devolution Act - for example the insistence on the designation of Unionists, Nationalist and other which means that the minority parties are not part of any effective weighted majority, for example that a hung system for rolling members of the executive, might it not be at least possible to consider the at least temporary elimination of Sinn Fein for a period temporarily if that was the price of movement?

PRIME MINISTER: (Tony Blair)

I think the best way of getting this process to work is one that is inclusive, and people can speculate on what happens if you can't do it, but my judgement about this all the way through is that you will have an agreement, if it's an inclusive agreement, and if you don't have inclusion of all the main political parties, then you can have all sorts of agreements but they won't really add up to much of a reality.

QUESTION:

Prime Minister, speaking to an audience outside of Northern Ireland as well as within it, are you saying to them that you believe the IRA wish to keep the option of violence open, or is it that they simply don't wish to express words written for them by Unionists and the British Government which they still regard as occupiers.

PRIME MINISTER: (Tony Blair)

First of all, nobody is saying that the IRA or Sinn Fein have to use words dictated by the British or Irish Governments. Neither is anybody saying that the IRA should in any shape or form say that they are surrendering. All that we require is within the Good Friday Agreement that demands that all these paramilitary activities cease, that they state clearly that from now they won't authorise any of the activities that we list in the Joint Declaration having listed them because at least significant elements of them have been happening. So it is not a mysterious thing that we are asking for here. Neither are we trying to dictate to people. We are simply trying to say - maybe this is the right way of putting this too - sometimes what I have found over the last few weeks is that you have this extraordinary way that we carry on with this, where Gerry Adams will make his statements on behalf of the IRA, is it not, on behalf of the IRA. The IRA guys never actually come out and say anything. I think we have got to get beyond all that. We have got to start treating people in Northern Ireland like real adults and saying, and it is part of a mature political process, what do you actually mean. This stuff is going on, it has been going on. Is it going to stop or not? The notion somehow that you require three weeks of negotiation to decide this or not, you don't. What you need is a group of people to make a decision and follow it through in plain terms. Now I actually believe that the key elements in Republicanism do want to make progress. They know, just as the British Government, had to come to the realisation that we were not going to defeat the IRA simply by military means, that there are political issues that needed to be resolved. We had to come to that understanding as the British Government. I think and hope and believe Republicanism has come to the understanding that it is not going to get a united Ireland by paramilitary activity. It isn't going to happen. It will either happen by the consent of people in Northern Ireland freely given, or not at all. And there what I think would be a good idea, this is why we published the Joint Declaration today, there are difficulties in that. But they should publish their IRA statement and someone should come out and actually talk. Why can't people come out and talk and tell people in Northern Ireland what is going on, this is what is happening, and let's not go through this great pantomime of statements and clarifications and all the rest of it. Let's have it out on the open so people can see.

QUESTION:

Inaudible

PRIME MINISTER: (Tony Blair)

Well, what I would like is clarity from the people who can give you clarity.

QUESTION:

In the interest of clarity, what do you think actually stalled this thing. There were two theories going around when the statement came out from the IRA and came to you three weeks ago that collectively the Sinn Fein-Republican leadership had decided now was not to time to dispense with force, particularly with the review further down the pipeline. It might be useful to have it there to back them up in a review. The sort of thing you were talking about in October. This menace that has helped them in negotiating in the past. Or is it that there were - as you seemed to be implying earlier - hard-liners within the IRA who have held this thing up?

PRIME MINISTER: (Tony Blair>

Look, I don't know, do I? And I don't think there is much point in me speculating, but my best judgement and guess is that the majority of the people in the Republican movement want this thing to work and recognise that there is no future in Northern Ireland for paramilitarism. But it is a difficult situation. They are having to move Republicanism from that type of paramilitary activity. It is difficult when they don't have a great deal of confidence, let's be clear, in the Unionists. Probably not in the British Government either. It's not very easy when there are Nationalists in Catholic communities being subject to brutal sectarian attacks and in those communities people are saying to the IRA why aren't you defending us against this. I understand the pressures that they are subject to. And they are real pressures which is why I said to you that Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness have done an immense amount in the past few years to move this process forward so has the entire leadership of the IRA. There have been real changes. Northern Ireland is a better place than it was 6 years. So I understand when they say to me, recognise how far we've come. And I say to them, we do recognise that, but unfortunately we're at the point where people have got to go to the absolute definitive completed position of foreswearing violence in all its forms and that's something obviously that a paramilitary group which has developed over a number of years can be difficult for them to do, but in the end, look I couldn't sit in government with partners that were associated with paramilitary groups. Bertie Aherne, the Taoiseach, wouldn't do that in the Republic of Ireland. Now I have been prepared to say to Unionism because of the history of Northern Ireland there is a process of transition and so what would be unacceptable in other circumstances I am asking you to do. And to be fair to the Unionist leadership, which is why I think their steps forward should be recognised too, they have sat with Sinn Fein in government, but now they are at the point where they need to know the thing is going to come to an end, everyone does what they are supposed to do, the war will actually be over, and they also need to know in the meantime that the paramilitary activity stops, and that means all of it. It is not acceptable that people carry out these exilings and punishment beatings and this type of thing. It is appalling. It's not the way that democratic political parties behave. So that's why this thing has just got to be resolved.

QUESTION:

On that paramilitary activity I would like clarification. Part of the Joint Declaration is a plan for an international monitoring body. Might you consider pressing ahead with something like that anyway so that there can be an independent view that isn't the Police or one government or the other's view of what is happening on the ground so that when you return to these issues maybe there will be more of an independent and agreed sense of what is happening and not happening.

PRIME MINISTER: (Tony Blair)

Well, I think it is probably better that we pursue you in the framework of the Joint Declaration. But you are absolutely right in saying that a very important part of this is a process of verifying and keeping all the political parties to their commitments - including the governments incidentally - because what we set out here is a process of the complete normalisation within a 2 year period so that all the additional troop requirements and military requirements in Northern Ireland from the British Government is scaled back so that Northern Ireland will have the same number of troops operating in the same way as any other part of the UK. So it is a huge thing in terms of what happens down in South Armagh and all the rest of it. All of it, in 2 years, we are prepared to do. But we need to have, as I say, the clarity on the other side.

OK. Many thanks all of you.