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Writing Peace: George J. Mitchell Collection

Record of an opening plenary meeting on 28 January 1997 at 10.11 (OIC/PS59)

Thursday, 30 January 1997

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This is the draft summary record of an opening plenary session on Tuesday 28 January 1997 at 10.11. The Chairman called for a round table process addressing how to move forward on decommissioning. The British Government proposed further bilaterals in advance of a fixed date for plenary on Tuesday 4 February 1997. This was supported by the Irish Government and Alliance, who asked for the British Government to provide written material to focus the bilaterals. Labour agreed. The NIWC suggested that the Chair should be involved in bilateral discussions. The PUP agreed. The SDLP made a long statement criticising the line taken towards them publicly by the UUP and defending the Hume/Adams talks. It expressed its reluctance to participate in continued bilateral meetings if the issue on the table was the entry conditions to the talks. It wanted to proceed to substantive issues. The UDP thought plenary mode would be preferable given lack of agreement in bilaterals to date. The DUP thought this was one solution and that alternatives from the Ground Rules such as a Chair's proposal or the establishment of a working group could also be considered. It also questioned the British Government's assessment of progress and criticised the SDLP position. The UKUP also criticised the SDLP's position and the bilateral format, emphasising that the UUP needed agreement from it and the DUP too. It also expressed doubt about the utility of the process as a whole. The UUP questioned the Irish Government about the conditions of entry for Sinn Féin to the talks. The UKUP asked that bilateral papers be shared with all parties and wondered about the involvement of the Business Committee. Entry conditions for Sinn Féin were further debated and reference was made to the government decommissioning legislation.

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