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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Protestants Leave North Irish Talks

Associated Press

Protestant hard-liners stormed out of Northern Ireland’s peace negotiations early today when former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell took his seat to lead the negotiations.

Pro-British Protestants opposed to American involvement in the search for a peace settlement here had refused to accept Mitchell, the British and Irish governments’ nominee, since the talks opened early Monday.

But the British government said Ireland’s largest Protestant party agreed to a compromise after a marathon haggling session. Their support was crucial to Mitchell’s formal appointment, and the compromise is believed to include provisions for an ongoing review of Mitchell’s powers.

In a statement, Mitchell pledged that he and the Canadian and Finnish leaders of other parts of talks, would “meet our responsibilities in a totally fair and impartial manner.”

Addressing his critics among the Protestant negotiators, Mitchell said: “We recognize that it is you who must make the decisions on which these proceedings will advance. We will do all we appropriately can to be of assistance.”

When Mitchell took his seat, a dozen politicians from two other Protestant unionist parties retreated in protest.

“Mitchell has been forced on us. The Ulster Unionists agreed to a cowardly document with the governments. They’ve agreed to make Mitchell the overlord for the talks,” said an upset Ian Paisley Jr., a negotiator for the Democratic Unionist Party led by his father.

Paisley’s party and a smaller Protestant party, the United Kingdom Unionists, immediately pulled out.

Some Protestants oppose Mitchell, a former U.S. Senate majority leader from Maine, because of his close association with the policies of the Clinton administration. The president has personally offered a hand to Gerry Adams, leader of the Protestants’ enemy, the IRA-allied Sinn Fein party.

Sinn Fein has been barred from the negotiations because the Irish Republican Army has refused to renew the cease-fire it broke in February with a deadly truck bomb in London’s Docklands.