Former US diplomat, Richard Haass, should recognise that talks he chaired in Northern Ireland “failed to resolve the issues at hand” and “stop championing a dead document”, according to NI Conservatives’ co-chair, Trevor Ringland.
“The executive parties were unable to agree measures which were likely to solve problems around flags, parading and dealing with the past”, Trevor observed. “That doesn’t reflect badly on Mr Haass. He gave it his best efforts and Stormont politicians let him down; but now he has to stop championing the document his team put together, as a model on which to move forward. The Haass ‘blueprint’ failed to make any real progress on flags, its suggestions on parades were worse than the existing arrangements and the work on the past has since been thrown into disarray by arguments about On the Runs.”
“There’s no point focussing on getting signatures on a document, unless parties are agreeing to something worthwhile and unless they’re doing so in good faith. There were around 1,000 members of the security forces murdered during the Troubles and others right across the community, without many of the perpetrators being brought to justice. Unless a process for dealing with the past is realistic and balanced, it cannot contribute to lasting stability in our society. Sinn Féin’s views about On the Runs have cast doubt on the draft proposals’ ability to do just that.”
“As for Mr Haass’s suggestion that failure to agree on his document could bring about more violence in Northern Ireland, I’d question his assessment. The violence of the past was exposed as completely futile and only an idiot would want to repeat that. Of course, there are a few misguided people in our society, but they do not represent any significant section of our community or draw upon any coherent ideology. Mr Haass is right that there are serious issues which have to be resolved to give Northern Ireland a stable, hopeful future and he does put down a proper challenge about some of the actions which could be taken, but he has to recognise that the talks he chaired did not produce a blue print to deliver this progress.”