“The two face of British imperialism: In Belgrade we bomb because they would not sign the Peace Agreement … In Belfast we merely try to re-write the Peace Agreement”.
Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair gave a statement on Britain’s participation in the NATO bombing of Serb targets in Yugoslavia after Slobodan Milosevic rejected an agreement with the Kosovo Albanians – this, Blair said, was only the latest in a series of bad-faith actions on Milosevic’s part; the targets included Milosevic’s house, the Socialist party’s headquarters, and a TV station (BBC | Guardian).
In Northern Ireland, the implementation of the Belfast (“Good Friday”) Agreement is going slowly, and Unionist expressions of buyer’s remorse and insistence on decommissioning of arms as a precondition for talks (Guardian) suggested to republicans that they would like to re-write some of the Agreement’s provisions. Rather than ordering up bombs, Blair gave a speech in June that insisted that “Unionism must share power with the Nationalist and Republican community. … Many Republicans do not believe that Unionism will share power with them. Unionists must prove them wrong” (CAIN). The IRA were not impressed (July statement at CAIN | Guardian defense of Blair).
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Copyright © 1999 Paddy Duffy
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Paddy Duffy Collection 