Irish Leaders Visit White House
The leaders of Northern Ireland's new power-sharing government made a historic visit to the White House on Wednesday and said they would continue working together to bridge differences despite fresh violence.
"The ongoing violence reminds us of the need for all parties to carry out their obligations under the accord and for those with political aims to pursue them through exclusively peaceful means," President Clinton said in a statement after a 45-minute meeting with David Trimble, leader of the main Protestant party, the Ulster Unionists, and Seamus Mallon, a leader of the moderate Roman Catholic Social Democratic and Labor Party.
Trimble and Mallon, on the first visit to the United States as leaders of the Northern Irish Executive, updated the president on the implementation of the Good Friday Accord. Clinton helped broker the 1998 peace agreement that established a power-sharing government with representatives of pro-British Northern Ireland unionists and Sinn Fein, the mainly Roman Catholic party linked to the outlawed Irish Republican Army.
"Although the institutions have only been fully operating for a matter of weeks, elected representatives from across the party spectrum are working together on issues from economic development to the environment to health and education that hold the key to a better life for their constituents, who now hold them accountable under devolution of power," Clinton said.
In the latest outbreak of violence, a mortar blast Wednesday morning forced the evacuation of the main police station in the Northern Ireland town of Armagh. No injuries were reported but several people were treated for shock. Officials suspect such incidents are linked to IRA dissidents opposed to the group's cease-fire and its participation in Northern Ireland's peace process.
"Some people still have to make up their minds about what we're doing, about the agreement and about the future that we're trying to bring about," Trimble said. "Do they really actually want to buy into the future or do they prefer to go back to the past — the violence and the associated racketeering and criminality that was there as well."
Trimble and Mallon also invited Clinton to visit Northern Ireland before the end of his presidency in January.
"He said he would if he could," Trimble said.
"I bet my life he'll come," Mallon said.
The president has indicated a desire to make such a visit, but no trip has been announced.
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