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<\/a><\/p>\nFirst, Parades & Protest.<\/h4>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/span>On parades, the\u00a0key factor in early progress in Londonderry was an acceptance that the \u2018parade\u2019 was not at issue. It is important to remember that direct dialogue with Apprentice Boys opened first<\/em> on the Ormeau Road, only later in Londonderry.\u00a0The Parades Commission under the chairmanship of Alistair Graham gave\u00a0positive derterminations in both Londonderry and\u00a0Belfast\u00a0because of genuine meaningful dialogue by Apprentice Boys. Londonderry had particular circumstances and dynamics where over time the \u2018residents\u2019 group became a factor rather than principal player in addressing parades in the city: a space was created to allow the\u00a0civil rights influence on\u00a0civic life in Derry to come to the fore. The Determination in relation to Belfast in August 1999\u00a0clearly stated clearly the abject\u00a0failure of republicans to reciprocate the positive and constructive engagement by the Apprentice Boys:<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026 the LOCC has not taken up the opportunity to explore new means of understanding Apprentice Boys Culture and tradition in a more positive manner.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/i>\u201c\u2026the LOCC does not appear to have responded to the Apprentice Boys requests to identify specific concerns about the Apprentice Boys parade.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/i>\u201c\u2026the offer to facilitate the Apprentice Boys crossing the bridge was genuine and sincere, it [the Parades Commission] is of the opinion that it was inadequate in the circumstances.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/i>\u201c\u2026a notification for a protest parade lasting from 5.30am until 7.00pm and involving 5,000 participants \u2026 is likely to cause major disruption to the community.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n When parades were permitted along the Ormeau Road, the republican response was confrontational. The ensuing fracas, of course, was due to the RUC and Parades Commission<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0While republicans and nationalists are quick to demand \u2018rights\u2019 their\u00a0attitudes in respect of\u00a0Parades\u00a0and Protest\u00a0show little evidence of\u00a0civic responsibility.<\/p>\n If Dr Haass and Ms O\u2019Sullivan are seriously interested in looking at\u00a0 they will have taken time to have a background discussion with Alistair Graham, Chairman of the first Commission, and his Commissioners. There was for a few years a real chance of both rights and responsibilities being placed foremost, and a clear possibility that violence would not win through.<\/p>\n Starting with Alistair Graham\u2019s period as Chairman of the Parades Commission, there have been 7 or 8 reviews of the Parades Commission \u2013 lost count.\u00a0 The Ashdown review only reached interim<\/em> report stage \u2013 it failed to stand up to rigorous examination when challenged by those who had experience of dialogue with republicans on the matter of parades. The solution emerging from Hillsborough was always likely to fail because no Loyal Order wishes to see Parades the subject to political horse-trading at Stormont: bad enough the political gaming around the current arrangements.<\/p>\n On the Ormeau Road the LOCC demanded talks to be widened to include the community. Apprentice Boys in North Belfast, to ensure wider buy-in, were instrumental in creating the North & West Belfast Parades and Cultural Forum. Then republicans decided it is only the Orange Order to which they will speak, not the wider Community of which the Orange Order\u00a0is an active part. Goalposts constantly changed. More specifically, republicans were not exactly honest in engaging in dialogue. In 2003, individuals across Northern Ireland were visited by the PSNI to inform them their names were on an IRA hit list. A visit by the PSNI to your home, to tell you that the IRA has you on a list, is\u00a0 deeply disturbing and alarming for any individual, and\u00a0the immediate\u00a0family. A target because you have tried to do right by your culture and community, and to openly and honestly engage with another community?\u00a0 A visit by the PSNI in the run up to Christmas placed a bit of a dampener on the season of goodwill. Even so, dialogue continued even though it bore no fruit.<\/p>\n Is the issue one of Parades, really? Looking at the 25th<\/sup> IMC Report 2010 (para 2.9)<\/span><\/a><\/span> along with the Independent Reviewer\u2019s Third Report 2010 (Part 7:272)<\/span><\/a> it is perfectly clear that there is an internecine war between Sinn Fein and other Republican Groups where the police were the primary targets \u2013 as was evident on the Ormeau Road earlier<\/span><\/a>, suggests that this was a Public Order issue and not one of Parades. Again, violence has won in the subsequent years, culminating with the events of 2013. For the past ten or so years, the Parades Commission has been consistently na\u00efve, delusional, or directed (the reader can choose) in its determinations, which can only be interpreted as believing in some way that restrictions on Parades will reduce such Republican in-fighting to the benefit of public order or wider safety \u2013 incidentally, not criteria for it to consider within its remit. If the Commission has been used to remove Parades to remove conflict between republicans and police, it has done a disservice to the Rule of Law and to the wider community relations to which it purports concern.<\/p>\n Read a PC Determination. Under natural law <\/a>there should be clear steps identified in moving forward towards accommodation. That cannot only be for the Parade organizer to strive towards, otherwise it would be an inequitable and onerous law, and ultimately a \u2018No\u2019 Parades Commission as it has proved on the Ormeau Road and elsewhere. That is a key difference between Determinations written by the Parades Commission of Alistair Graham, and every Commission since. From any Determination, it should be obvious to anyone the issues at hand that must be addressed if progress to be made: a clear\u00a0explanation of\u00a0the gap that exists between where circumstances are today and where they may be in the future.<\/p>\n Dialogue is not a panacea: \u00a0100\u2032s of pages of minutes from the Ormeau, and almost ten years (2004-date) of talks at Ardoyne is testament to that.\u00a0Republicans refuse to respect another\u2019s culture and demand a no parades solution.\u00a0Time and time again the Parades Commission has been willing to deliver that \u2018no parades\u2019 solution,\u00a0in the face of the threat of republican led violence or as a consequence of republican orchestrated violence.\u00a0It does so through Determinations which in construct are arbitrary, and at worst contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights in respect of natural justice.<\/p>\n It is easy to believe that the Parades Commission \u2013 the legislation and the Code of Conduct \u2013 is fundamentally flawed. This is not the case. The Parades Commission was established as a buffer between the RUC making operational decisions and the NIO, specifically the Secretary of State,\u00a0engaging politically. But, as the Commission\u00a0under the\u00a0Chairmanship of\u00a0Alistair Graham proved, significant progress can be made when natural justice and the Rule of Law is honoured.<\/p>\n The Parades Commission has been\u00a0gamed by political parties, the police, and\u00a0the\u00a0representatives of\u00a0both the Irish and British Governments.\u00a0\u00a0It has become a \u2018Public Order\u2019 Commission. Political interference, engineering, and dealing has sustained the open sore and denied progress \u2013 particularly as this has mostly resulted in effective banning of parades as a means of preventing republican\/nationalist rioting.<\/p>\n By all means change the name of the body addressing parades, and generate some superficial construct that allows people to say it is \u2018different\u2019 to its predecessor. Little or no progress on parades is possible without a shift in the political landscape, respect for a \u2018dissenting\u2019 culture,\u00a0and an end of Government social-political engineering by proxy (an end to NIO play being replaced by Stormont play offers little promise).<\/p>\n Secondly http:\/\/wp.me\/phwTD-ee<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Thirdly http:\/\/wp.me\/phwTD-eg<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n The post Dear Dr Haass, First\u2026<\/a> appeared first on thedissenter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is the first part of a trilogy of posts based on a submission to The Panel of Parties, more generally named \u2018The Haass Talks\u2019. The blog post has the added advantage of being able to link documents and expand on a point here or there by way of detailed explanation that wasn\u2019t possible with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www1.thedissenter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www1.thedissenter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www1.thedissenter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www1.thedissenter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www1.thedissenter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www1.thedissenter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www1.thedissenter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www1.thedissenter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www1.thedissenter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}