World

Clinton Urged To Visit N. Ireland

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

April 13, 1998 / 9:39 AM EDT / CBS

Former Senate leader George Mitchell told President Clinton Monday the peace agreement for Northern Ireland could not have been achieved without his help, and Clinton said he would go to the region himself "if it would help."

Mitchell, who chaired the peace talks, met with Clinton briefly at the White House and has said he hopes the president will visit the region in the coming months.

"If it would help, of course I would be willing to go, but I think it's important not to make that decision yet," Clinton said, adding that he wanted to talk first with the prime ministers of Britain and Ireland and with leaders of parties involved in the peace agreement.

"I'm always willing to do whatever I can to help. But I don't want to do something to undermine the chances of success," Clinton said, declining to estimate chances for the success of the brokered compromise. "I'm not a handicapper. I want to be encouraging it," he said.

Mitchell, former Senate majority leader, was appointed by Clinton as envoy for the peace efforts three years ago. Today, he lauded the president for providing U.S. support for the process.

"I don't think there would be an agreement without President Clinton's involvement," Mitchell said.

Meanwhile, the peace compromise cleared its first hurdle in Belfast Monday, CBS News Correspondent Allen Pizzey reports.

The first contentious parade of the "marching season" stepped off peacefully and the loyalist Apprentice Boys stopped short of the Catholic Lower Ormeau Road, a flashpoint for serious violence in previous years, in line with a ruling by the Parades Commission.

Only a dozen marchers from the Belfast Walker Club, together with one band, took part in the half-mile parade through almost deserted streets. There was no protest by Catholic residents and only a low-key police presence.

Superintendent Stephen Grange, Royal Ulster Constabulary expressed his delight adding that "in recent years the Apprentice Boys have shown a high degree of integrity regarding parading in Ormeau Road."

Pizzey also reports that Sinn Fein leaders were encouraging support of the compromise at a rally this weekend to commemorate the Catholic's 1916 Easter Rising against British rule, an event that gave birth to the Irish nation.

"I accept your responsibility to assess this document, each and every one of you, to consider it, not through a union or through an exaggerated hate,"said Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

Pope John Paul II thanked God Monday for the Northern Ireland peace pact, but said the agreement needs "responsible and concrete gestures." to make it work. He spoke to the faithful from his summer home in Castelgandolfo in the hills outside Rome.

Mitchell said he hopes Mr. Clinton will travel to the area as it prepares for May 22 voter refrendums on the agreement. The president visited both Northern Ireland's capital, Belfast, and Dublin, the capital of the Republic of Ireland, in 1995. Mr. Clinton will be in the region in mid-May for an economic summit in England.

Under the peace deal, Northern Ireland would remain in the United Kingdom with a new assembly. But the Protestants and Catholics in this new administration would be required to forge formal links with the Irish Republic as well.

Hurdles that include the possibility of continued violence remain in implementing the peace agreement, which was struck Friday among eight parties.

"There are people on both sides who want to disrupt this process, who are committed to the way of violence, and I expect they'll step up their activities between now and the date of the referendum and thereafter," Mitchell said. "My hope is that it won't destabilize the process."