<HTML><PRE>Subj:	Fwd: Sinn Fein spurns paper
Date:	98-01-19 01:00:10 EST
From:	Buni1957
To:	DeeMcA, RedAxe66, Love irela, Connemara7
To:	FenianBoyo, JustaLocal
CC:	sean@cafes.net, haavar75@hotmail.com


-----------------
Forwarded Message: 
Subj:	 Sinn Fein spurns paper
Date:	98-01-19 00:36:46 EST
From:	ewhyte@online.no (Edward C Whyte)
Sender:	owner-ireland_list@email.rutgers.edu
To:	ireland_list@email.rutgers.edu

Irish News 19/1-98

Sinn Fein spurns paper
presented 'at gunpoint' 



     By Steven McCaffrey 

     SINN FEIN is set to oppose the new heads
     of agreement document - claiming it was
     "presented to the talks from the barrel of
     unionist and loyalist guns". 

     The party's chief negotiator Martin
     McGuinness rejected the new Anglo-Irish
     proposals which the governments hoped could
     pave the way for a settlement in Northern
     Ireland. 

     Yesterday he told BBC television's On the
     Record: "These propositions, heads of
     agreement, were presented to the talks table
     from the barrel of unionist and loyalist guns. 

     "Over the course of the last four weeks four
     Catholics have been killed by loyalist death
     squads, up to a dozen have been wounded." 

     Mr McGuinness said many people in the
     nationalist community believed the government
     had succumbed to unionist pressure, adding:
     "Sinn Fein will go to the talks and we will go
     there to challenge what we believe is a very
     serious mistake." 

     Whilst insisting Sinn Fein would stay in the
     peace talks, he said: "We have not accepted
     the document as a basis for negotiation and
     we intend going to the talks to oppose the
     document. 

     "Over the course of the last number of days
     we have seriously considered the document
     and I think it is fair to say that this document
     has gone down very badly within Sinn Fein. 

     "Wider afield there is anger in the nationalist
     community that what we have effectively seen
     is a statement where the two governments
     have effectively succumbed to the Orange
     card." 

     DUP deputy leader, Peter Robinson, accused
     Sinn Fein of calling the governments' bluff to
     extract concessions. 

     "Sinn Fein are cleverly playing their negotiating
     hand to extract more concessions and the
     talks will continue to be the farce they always
     have been," he said. 

     The two governments had presented the
     document as a means of launching the parties
     into serious negotiations for the first time. 

     Heads of agreement include plans for
     constitutional change for both Britain and
     Ireland. 

     Plans for a Northern Ireland assembly were
     put forward and north-south bodies, crucial to
     Sinn Fein, were outlined. 

     Sinn Fein's rejection of the proposals came
     after a week of wrangling over whether the
     cross border bodies would have executive
     powers. 

     Mr McGuinness accused the governments of
     retreating from the earlier framework
     document, more acceptable to republicans,
     and of caving in to unionists after the loyalist
     violence of recent weeks. 

     Meanwhile, Ulster Unionist leader David
     Trimble held what he described as a positive
     discussion about the document with grassroots
     members of his party. He briefed about 60
     local councillors and branch members at the
     party's HQ in Belfast on Saturday.


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Subject: Sinn Fein spurns paper
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