Скачать или смотреть N. IRELAND: BELFAST: TONY BLAIR PRESS CONFERENCE

(15 May 1998) English/Nat

British Prime Minister Tony Blair visited Northern Ireland for the second time in just eight days on Thursday.

He tried to convince sceptics among the majority Protestants that the Good Friday peace deal is worth their while and that London is not bowing to Republican demands.

Blair also went to Stormont to visit some of the victims and relatives of sectarian violence, trying to assure them their suffering has not been forgotten in the efforts towards peace.

Speaking in Belfast, Prime Minister Tony Blair said that the peace agreement would do away with violence once and for all and that the public should vote "Yes".

Northern Ireland goes to the ballot box for a referendum on May 22 - the ultimate test of whether the peace agreement is acceptable to all sides - both Republican and Unionist.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"First and foremost an unequivocal commitment that there is an end to violence for good on the part of Republicans and Loyalists alike. That the so-called war is finished, done with and gone, that as the agreement says, non-violence and exclusively peaceful and democratic means are the only means to be used."
SUPER CAPTION: Tony Blair, British Prime Minister

Protestants fear that the accord excludes assurances that the I-R-A will decommission its weapons.

Anti-agreement Unionists have urged voters to say "No", but Blair says the agreement is the only way forward for Northern Ireland.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"But I honestly believe that to say yes is to say yes to a future of hope, peace, stability, prosperity and that to say no is to turn one's back on a better future for Northern Ireland."
SUPER CAPTION: Tony Blair, British Prime Minister

Blair's next stop was Stormont and a visit with families touched by the violence that has claimed so many lives in Northern Ireland.

Blair arrived at the former Northern Ireland parliament building, which may also serve as the new one for the province's new political future.

The British leader was greeted by Kenneth Bloomfield, who serves as commissioner for victims of the sectarian violence.

Blair then met with some of those who have suffered most in the fighting between Protestants and Catholics - relatives of victims and some victims themselves of the decades of violence.

Many such families are troubled by the release of I-R-A prisoners as part of the peace agreement.

But Blair tried to reassure them that the pain that they and their families have suffered has not been forgotten by the architects of peace.

Hopes are high that the peace referendum - if it passes - will protect other families from the bloodshed that those who met Blair at Stormont have had to endure.

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