'Long Good Friday' Ends with N. Iri

[Thein.Lwin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Friday April 10 3:07 PM EDT 

'Long Good Friday' Ends with N. Irish Deal

By Martin Cowley 

BELFAST (Reuters) - Northern Ireland's political leaders and the
British and Irish governments agreed Friday to a peace deal aimed at
ending decades of sectarian violence. 

The agreement was designed to give more rights to the Catholic
minority in the north while reassuring Protestants they will not be
taken over by the Catholic south. 

It preserved the north's links with Britain while building closer ties
with the south and marked the biggest change in the province's
political arrangements since the island was divided in 1921. 

Changes are proposed in Ireland's constitution and British
constitutional law to enshrine the principle that the people of
Northern Ireland can decide their future democratically. 

The people of the north and south will vote on the agreement in May. 

The agreement creates new institutions, including a Northern Ireland
Assembly and a North/South Council. 

"I am pleased to announce that the two governments and the political
parties of Northern Ireland have reached agreement," George Mitchell,
a former Senator from Maine, told a final session of the marathon
talks. 

"I have been in politics for 30 years and never have I felt this sense
of gratification and responsibility and gratitude that I feel today,"
said Mitchell, who has been chairman of the talks. 

"I believe today that courage has triumphed," said British Prime
Minister Tony Blair, who played a crucial role in brokering the deal
along with his Irish counterpart Bertie Ahern. 

Ahern hailed the agreement, reached 17 hours after the passing of a
Thursday midnight deadline, as "a new beginning for all of us, in
Northern Ireland, the island of Ireland and across these islands." 

"It's a day we should treasure and a day when agreement and
accommodation have taken up the place of difference and division," he
said. 

President Clinton intervened Friday by telephone and spoke with the
main pro-British Unionist leader David Trimble, Gerry Adams, leader of
the IRA guerrillas' Sinn Fein political allies, and with Ahern and
Irish nationalist leader John Hume. 

Clinton's action came after Trimble's Ulster Unionist Party raised
concerns about arrangements over the handover of guerrilla weapons and
assurances that members of a future Northern Ireland assembly would
have no links with extremists. 

Mitchell told the final plenary round at Stormont Castle: "The
agreement proposes changes in the Irish Constitution and in British
constitutional law to enshrine the principle that it is the people of
Northern Ireland who will decide, democratically, their own future. 

"It deals fairly with such sensitive issues as prisoners, policing,
decommissioning and the importance of achieving equality of treatment
for the whole community. 

Full details of the accord were due to be sent to every household in
the province before the vote next month. But it will be challenged by
hard-line Protestant Unionist parties and by guerrilla splinter groups
on both sides who have never joined the peace talks. 

Trimble emerged to tell reporters that "the role of the Union (with
Britain) is stronger than it was we sat down" and challenged Sinn Fein
to end its "dirty, squalid little terrorist war." 

Adams said his party's struggle for a united Ireland would continue. 

"This is a phase in our struggle. That struggle must continue until it
reaches its final goal," he said. 

The peace agreement contained positive elements but others would need
to be worked on, Adams said. 

"But for now it is time to draw a breath. It is time to reflect.
Republicans and nationalists will come to this document with
skepticism but also with hope," Adams said. 

The feuding parties spent the night and most of the day wrestling with
the final draft of the peace accord, aimed at ending three decades of
guerrilla violence that has claimed more than 3,000 lives. 

The peace settlement will be put to a parallel referendums in Northern
Ireland and the Irish Republic on May 22, and Clinton is likely to
visit the province shortly before the voting.