Damian O'Loan

Damian O'Loan (Paris): Wednesday marked the launch of the much-hyped report of Northern Ireland's Consultative Group on the Past, including its “outrageous” proposal to award £12,000 to all victims of the Troubles, regardless of their, or their families', contribution to the conflict.

It has been rejected by the dominant unionist DUP; Sinn Féin are unhappy with the truth recovery proposals; one of four members of the Commission for Victims and Survivors, former newsreader Mike Nesbitt, suggested it “was likely to divide families;” the Ulster Unionist leader has called for the proposals to be withdrawn; even the cross-community Alliance party were outraged, though leader David Ford acknowledged “many positive recommendations.” Not a great reception then.

Damian O'Loan

Damian O'Loan (Paris): The latest comparison between Gaza and Northern Ireland in terms of conflict resolution comes from Jonathan Freedland in the Guardian. The analogy was considered first by an advisor of possible Tory cabinet member, Lord Trimble; then here by Tom Griffin, and by the Independent's Robert Fisk. Disagreement has centred around the extent to, and manner in, which the conflicts are comparable. Yet we have not considered the problems in the Northern Irish peace, and what lessons they may offer.

Freedland draws three equivalent stages: firstly, he advocates an Israeli statement corresponding to Lord Brooke's landmark acceptance that Britain had no “selfish strategic or economic interest” in Northern Ireland. Secondly, like Tom Griffin, he cites the importance of communication with the extremist wing of opinion, in this case the elected Hamas, though for Freedland, because “the realisation that no military solution will ever be possible” is essential on both sides. Thirdly, he refers to the rewards administered to each side in Northern Ireland by London and Dublin, and their necessity in avoiding loss of face, and therefore grassroots traction of the peace process.

Freedland and Griffin are right to address the futility of the position of no official contact with Hamas. We may reasonably suspect that communication, as in Northern Ireland, extends from the level of infiltration to back-channel negotiation. What differs is that, while the IRA claimed to be the official government of all Ireland, they were never elected as the majority party. Refusing to speak to Hamas adds to the absence of statehood in denying the Palestinian people a reasonable chance to work towards peace. Dialogue would quickly lead to a Hamas recognition of Israel. Freedland shows how this should, and could, be publicly rewarded. The problem with secret communication is it renders this twin-track approach impossible, and excludes public pressure to progress. In Northern Ireland, the electorate have long been less entrenched than their leadership.

Yet there are major problems with the comparison. Fisk, describing the difference, says Gaza has more in common with “17th-century Irish Catholic dispossession than sectarianism in Belfast.” This is the problem with Freedland's “no strategic or economic interest” statement. It is unrealistic that Palestinians might find this credible. The US interest in Ireland probably moved from concern at the socialism inherent to republicanism in the 1970s to satisfaction at Dublin's embrace of neoliberalism. What is specific to Gaza is that Hamas would not render Palestine a client state; that Fatah may appears to have cost them public support.

One lesson that Northern Ireland appears to offer is that peace is possible once client status to greater global forces is accepted by all parties; while in Israel it is deeply embedded and in Egypt it is becoming established, in Palestine it is increasingly unthinkable. Yet, we should be very clear that this is what Tony Blair is there to accomplish – often described as a peace-broker, the Wall St Journal is more accurate, describing him as “charged with developing the economies of the West Bank and Gaza.

The problem with Freedland's second step, renouncing violence, is that republicanism has only temporarily accepted this, having “parked” the constitutional issue, its fate to be decided politically. There has at no point been acceptance that armed struggle is in all circumstances wrong; the IRA Army Council remains in place; loyalists have not decommissioned their arsenal; dissident republicanism is growing. Ireland simply offers no answer other than to defer territorial decisions, which would be counter-productive when Palestine urgently demands statehood.

More hopeful is Barack Obama's promise to remove dependency on Middle-Eastern oil. This would make an Israeli statement of neutrality imaginable, particularly accompanied by disengagement in the West Bank. Equally necessary is action holding Hamas to their publicly-stated commitment to a long-term ceasefire of a generation.

For this, we need to be open and accept that Hamas' election marked the beginning of the blockade that has been fatal ever since, that Israel broke the last ceasefire by killing six Hamas militants, and that the present war is manifestation of the international community's refusal to accept the legitimacy of Hamas' mandate.

All this is vital because the first step toward peace is international pressure on Israel to accept Hamas' legitimacy as their partners in peace. That requires us to accept that our foreign policy must not lead to Islamicist regimes being elected democratically. Northern Ireland has nothing to offer in this regard.

Where it can help is showing that leadership is offered by the grassroots. If a short-term peace can be agreed, democratic participation in Gaza should be facilitated by aid and infrastructural investment. This will allow for Hamas to move away from its apparent Islamicist nature towards a more central position, and create a Palestine-centred focus to balance the global sense of hurt felt by the Islamic community. In Northern Ireland, the voters were brought to embrace the extremes but were not engaged with the process enough. Their lack of involvement in creating peace provides a lesson in securing stability worth exporting.

Another lesson offered by Northern Ireland's failures can be gleaned by the IRA “armalite and ballot box” strategy. The British government openly admitted that the armed struggle brought results – foolish in terms of long-term security. Creating a widespread belief that politics offers more than violence would mean a carrot and stick approach not mirrored in the present military assault. The failure of the international community to do so would lead a cynic to believe that lasting instability in the Middle East is, in fact, the long-term objective of some.

Damian O'Loan

Damian O'Loan (Paris): Northern Ireland's Human Rights Commission has delivered its report advising the Labour government on the content of a NI Bill of Rights. Acting on recommendations from a cross-party and civic society Forum, It has done well to reduce an unfocussed report into this clear document. It is important for a few reasons:

The Conservatives have pledged to repeal the Human Rights Act, leaving the ECHR protections. This would reduce sovereignty in that judges in Brussels would take decisions, based on EU legislation, now taken in London on Westminster legislation. In any case, if they are true to their pledge to hold a referendum on EU membership outright, we could be left with neither.

Damian O'Loan

Damian O'Loan (Paris): David Cameron was on the offensive in his speech to the Ulster Unionist Party conference on Saturday. This was a bold speech, bordering on reckless. His stated ambitions for the pact are mass appeal, consolidating the Union and Northern Irish participation at cabinet level. It repairs a split dating from the Thatcher era. He failed, however, to outline what exactly it will mean in terms of decision-making processes, policy and message, and concerns about impartiality prior to the speech, noted here by Tom Griffin, appear well-founded.

Damian O'Loan

Damian O'Loan (Paris): The Damian Green scandal betrays a contempt for democracy that has similarities to that practised by the Stormont executive, and the shared Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister in particular. They have most recently called for parliamentary questions to be reduced to once per month, alternating between Sinn Fein and DUP ministers, of which there are four in the Department. 

While the debate on PMQs has been marked by the need to improve a system that is not allowing parliament to fully play its role, this proposal is based on little more the most Hobbesian of foundations. Stormont houses an infant and fragile democracy. It is inconsistent to sell stability to American investors on the one hand, as those very ministers have been doing, and meanwhile to launch an attack on the equilibrium of that most crucial of triumvirates: executive,
legislature and judiciary.

Damian O'Loan

Damian O'Loan (Paris): The election of Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States may bring good news to the hunt for one of the most closely guarded secrets in the history of British involvement in the Northern Irish troubles. During the campaign, as noted here and elsewhere, the now President-elect pledged support for a comprehensive truth recovery process, in particular for a full, independent public judicial enquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane, a lawyer shot dead in front of his wife and children at home in Belfast in 1989, by loyalist paramilitaries with the alleged collusion of British state agencies.

In responding to a questionnaire compiled by two Irish-American groups, Mr Obama said he would support an Inquiry under the terms recommended by Canadian judge Peter Cory in 2003, a report accepted by the Tony Blair under the Weston Park agreement of 2001. The government went on to delay proceedings before eventually hastily passing the Inquiries Act 2005 with no public consultation. That legislation, which replaced the 1921 Public Inquiries Act, allows ministers the power to deny truth recovery in several ways.

Damian O'Loan

Damian O'Loan (Paris): It is not only in the UK that the introduction of Taser electronic pistols has ignited controversy.  As Amnesty’s Patrick Corrigan has highlighted here, the weapons’ implications for the Right to Life have been called into question by a judicial review to be decided in Belfast in January.  Directly comparable issues are also coming before the courts in France.

Over here, however, it is the distributors of the weapons, SMP technologies, who have been initiating the actions.  The French company has launched defamation and slander lawsuits following citations of Amnesty International figures citing up to 290 fatalities following exposure to the weapons’ 50,000-volt force.

Damian O'Loan

The weekend reports of Dominique Strauss-Kahn's dangerous liaison have set tongues wagging worldwide, at a time when the IMF's Managing Director was positioning the organisation to implement a new global, financial regulation system. Neither favourable nor disfavourable behaviour in Mrs Piroska Nagy's regard has been established, and the investigation had been discretely ongoing since August, but in light of the fate of Paul Wolfowitz, his very future is clearly at stake.

It would be interesting, then, to examine who may stand to benefit from Mr Strauss-Kahn's aventure d'un soir. The investigation was launched in response to governing board member A Shakour Salaan's request. The Wall St Journal, who broke the story, claiming this was done with "advice from the representatives of Russia and the U.S." And this does seem probable. The Times speaks of a "dismayed President Sarkozy." This rather less so.

Clearly, if the IMF was to return to a role exceeding even it's former strength, as proposed in the Financial Times, there would be difficulties for those countries whose growth most depended on their financial sector and speculation. There may be effects on oil and gas prices. There would certainly be voices opposing restoring the oversight that has been carefully dismantled in the U.S., given their muzzling of government as crisis approached. Russia nominated its own candidate when Nicolas Sarkozy convinced enough leaders to make DSK Europe's, and may well seek to nominate his eventual successor.

Damian O'Loan

Damian O'Loan (Paris): The government, shamed by the criticisms in yesterday's coroner's report labelling MoD failures "lamentable", was perhaps only too aware of the attraction of dropping the idea of secret inquests from the failed Counter-Terrorism Bill. As ever though, they will revert to another piece of legislation to implement what is clearly neither wanted nor needed. If, as noted by Tom Griffin, the Conservatives continue to base their opposition on the needs of British service personnel only, it is possible that the general public will be at risk.

Secret inquests, along with internment without trial, formed part of the draconian Special Powers Act 1922 that failed spectacularly in Northern Ireland. The government claims the need to protect vital security information trumps the relevant human rights concerns. The concern is that if the state is involved in a death, it could use this legislation to conceal evidence, and prejudice the right to effective remedy. As we have seen in Northern Ireland with infiltration methods, and Britain with the de Menezes muder, there can be no certainty that this is an outlandish proposal.

Damian O'Loan

Damian O'Loan (Paris): Amidst the problems at Stormont, nationalist Mark Durkan has given a reminder of the need to move towards voluntary coalition. The SDLP leader suggests eventually replacing the Nationalist/Unionist “designation” system of the Good Friday and St Andrew's agreements with the forthcoming NI Bill of Rights, alongside a weighted majority, as the basis of government.

Damian O'Loan

 Damian O'Loan (Paris): The situation in Stormont may now merit the term crisis. A prominent Sinn Fein representative in the South of Ireland, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD, has threatened collapse of the Assembly if policing and justice are not devolved: “we will have no option but to pull out our ministers.” Jeffrey Donaldson MP, MLA, Privy Council member and possible Justice Minister, has called for clarification of the threat: “Do they want to stay in the executive? If they do, let's meet and address these issues."

Both sides claim the other refuses to talk; it is widely held that Sinn Fein are blocking the passage of other Ministerial business until their key electoral promises have been resolved – or as Peter Robinson has it: “Adams seems to think that it is the role of everyone to move to his position.” The other parties are unforgiving, nationalist SDLP leader Mark Durkan saying “The soundings coming from Sinn Féin at the minute are more ludicrous than ominous.” Moderate unionism's leader Sir Reg Empey warned “This sort of behaviour cannot continue for much longer.”

Damian O'Loan

 Damian O'Loan (Paris): The Prime Minister has sent a response to the 15,700 people who petitioned him to reprimand DUP MP Iris Robinson following her claim that members of the LGBT community should seek a cure. Predictably, Gordon Brown has chosen only to point to the strong anti-discrimination legislation in place in Northern Ireland, and links to the Equality Commission.

Damian O'Loan

 Damian O'Loan (Paris): After months of deadlock, it looks as if there is finally movement on the transfer of policing and justice powers to the Stormont Assembly. Sinn Féin had falsely claimed that a May 'O8 deadline for the transfer was secured in the St Andrews Agreement. The DUP opposed any deadline, which was was fundamental to Sinn Féin's vote to support the police. That support in turn was crucial for the creation of the current Stormont executive – hence the present crisis.

Now the two main parties have decided there will be a single Policing and Justice Department and Minister, and that they will not field candidates.

Damian O'Loan

In a comment on Damian O'Loan's lament about ongoing sectarianism in Northern Ireland, Anthony Barnett asked why restorative justice of all things is deepening the divide when it is supposed to do the opposite. Damian's answer vividly illuminates what is going on. 

Damian O'Loan (Paris): Restorative justice involves community representatives mediating in low-level disputes, reducing criminalisation while better serving victims' interests. It has been effective internationally, most particularly regarding youth justice. What's specific to Northern Ireland, where it was this week further institutionalised, is it lies in the hands of groups rising from the embers of paramilitarism.

Damian O'Loan

Damian O'Loan (Paris): One wonders, observing the political crises in London and Belfast, how much is real and how much is 'silly season' filler. In the case of Northern Ireland, some may be surprised that “the hand of history” may not be leading to reconciliation after all.

The relationship with Brown's difficulty is that both crises represent the inevitable unravelling of spin to expose reality underneath. Blair said he solved Northern Ireland - as elsewhere, he spoke too soon.

Damian O'Loan

Damian O'Loan (Paris): What kind of company was Labour keeping when it relied on DUP votes to get 42 day detention through the Commons? The answer is becoming clearer by the day.

Iris Robinson MP, MLA, wife of Northern Ireland First Minister Peter, has made three horrendous statements on public morality. The latest to be reported: “There can be no viler act, apart from homosexuality and sodomy, than sexually abusing innocent children.”

Damian O'Loan

Damian O'Loan (Paris): Allegations of British collusion with torture by Pakistani security services led to calls for an Intelligence and Security Committee investigation on Tuesday. A week earlier the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee published a report into historical enquiries. These events are linked.

Lat year, the British government accepted the findings of a report confirming police collusion with a loyalist paramilitary group involved in murders and other grave offences.The NIAC report may be a step towards allowing further historical inquiries to be suppressed. Why would we not want to learn from our history?

Damian O'Loan

Damian O'Loan (Paris): Bastille Day in France was the first to be celebrated under President Sarkozy. M Sarkozy celebrated his first as President of the EU, and the day was a rare success as the Mediterranean Union was inaugurated. A busy day in a busy time, but what does all this mean across the Channel?

It is no secret that Sarkozy was bitterly disappointed by the Irish No, that his plans for the presidency were thereby irrevocably altered. Opinion in France itself is deeply divided on Lisbon; the opposition Socialist Party were unable to hold a line in the parliamentary vote on ratification. There are contradictory reports on whether the treaty would pass or not if there were a French referendum.