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British government sets IRA deadline

LONDON - The British government imposed a tough deadline on the Irish Republican Army last night, threatening to shut down the new government of Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland if the IRA doesn't demonstrate some progress toward disarmament in a week.

The Northern Ireland Minister, Peter Mandelson, said legislation to "suspend" the Northern Ireland Assembly and Cabinet - the historic venture in power sharing that began just two months ago - would be enacted "late next week" if no positive sign is forthcoming.

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahearn put the squeeze even tighter on the IRA. Meeting with the IRA's political wing, Sinn Fein, he reportedly demanded some step right now. It's one thing for Sinn Fein to resist deadlines set by its political adversaries or by its ancient enemy, the British government. It's quite another for a party committed to Irish unity to spurn the government of Ireland.

"We must make further progress," Ahearn said last night after an emergency meeting in Cornwall, England, with British Prime Minister Tony Blair. "We've had a very difficult week."

Mandelson, generally described as the most artful political strategist in Blair's government, may have found an artful way to buy a few days' breathing space in the latest crisis to strike the crisis-plagued peace process in the badly divided British province.

Since he essentially sided with the Ulster Unionist Party in demanding some movement now by the IRA, Mandelson has probably fended off the threat by UUP leader David Trimble to quit the Cabinet this weekend, a step that would kill the new government. On the other hand, Mandelson didn't actually suspend the government, and he didn't demand that the IRA give up any guns right now. Rather, he called for "definite information" indicating if and when the heavily armed organization will start to hand in weapons.

This week's renewed turmoil in the province stemmed from Monday's report by the international commission supervising disarmament - called "decommissioning" here - under the 1998 Good Friday peace plan.

According to Mandelson, the commission reported that none of the various sectarian armies has started disarming yet. That report focused attention on the IRA because it is by far the largest of the paramilitaries, with the most lethal history. The whole dynamic of the Good Friday agreement is built around a trade-off: Roman Catholic politicians would get senior jobs in the provincial government, which had been dominated for decades by Protestants. In return, the largely Catholic Sinn Fein committed to work for decommissioning by the IRA.

The present difficulties stem from a tactical decision made when the peace plan was settled nearly two years ago. To induce all parties to sign, the agreement was deliberately vague about when decommissioning would happen. It says only that the province's political parties must "use any influence they may have" to convince the paramilitaries to turn in their weapons by May 22 of this year. Neither the IRA or any other armed group is mentioned in the document.

Ever since, the several active branches of the IRA have all resisted any suggestion that they must give up arms. The so-called "mainstream" arm of the fractured organization says the focus on its arsenal is misguided, because the IRA is currently in a self-declared cease-fire. The other parties here say a cease-fire is not equivalent to disarmament. The IRA was in a state of cease-fire in 1996 when it exploded a bomb in London, killing two and causing $120 million in damages.

In recent weeks, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has complained publicly that he is having trouble dealing with the IRA on the disarmament question. Pressure from other parties or from London doesn't help, Adams says, because IRA members are inclined to push back when they are pushed.

But Mandelson, the British minister, clearly sided Thursday night with the unionist politicians who set a deadline of this month for a start to decommissioning by the IRA.

Hoping to avoid a shutdown of the local government, Seamus Mallon, of the largest Catholic party, the Social Democratic and Labor Party, urged Mandelson Thursday night to try something short of "suspension" to resolve the current crisis.

Russian exchanges journalist for soldiers

MOSCOW - The Russian government said yesterday it has traded a Radio Liberty journalist who was under military detention in Chechnya to rebel commanders in exchange for two Russian soldiers.

The surprise announcement deepened the apprehension in the Russian journalistic community about the fate of Andrei Babitsky, a Russian citizen who covered the Chechen war for the U.S.-financed radio station.

Babitsky has not contacted his family or the radio station since Jan. 15.