25/07/2001

DUP pressurize government to reveal proposals

The anti-Agreement Democratic Unionist Party have said they will seek a meeting with the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission if the government refuses to allow them access to the package of proposals.

Following a meeting with the Northern Ireland Secretary of State at Stormont on Tuesday July 24, the party's deputy leader Peter Robinson said there was a risk that the details of the package would never be publicly known if the pro-Agreement parties did not endorse the proposals.

Mr Robinson said: "I think it is absolutely outrageous that the secretary of state is not prepared to give an undertaking that at some stage the DUP will see these proposals." He added Dr Reid’s decision to refuse to let them see the proposals was unfair because it affected the future of everyone in Northern Ireland.

The "non-negotiable" document followed five days of intensive talks brokered by the British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern at Weston Park in Staffordshire early in July. Following Mr Trimble's resignation on July 1, there were six weeks available to the parties to find a resolution by 12 August.

The document is expected to be released to all the pro-Agreement parties on Thursday or Friday. After this, they then have only two weeks to make up their minds whether to accept or decline the package.

At the end of that period, if there has been no deal, the British Government will have to either suspend the assembly - even if only for a short period to give more room for manoeuvre - or call an assembly election.

(AMcE)

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