
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, December 16, 1993                   TAG: 9312160181
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: LONDON                                LENGTH: Medium

PEACE PLAN ADOPTED FOR N. IRELAND

The British and Irish governments agreed Wednesday on a "framework for peace" in Northern Ireland, offering the Irish Republican Army a seat at the bargaining table within three months if it pledges to end its campaign of violence.

In a seven-page "joint declaration," British Prime Minister John Major and Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds agreed that Britain will not block Northern Ireland from leaving the United Kingdom and joining the Irish Republic, but that it will be up to the people of Northern Ireland themselves to decide on such a step.

If peace talks lead to an eventual settlement, the Irish government will ask voters to change the articles of the Irish constitution that lay territorial claim to Northern Ireland, the two leaders agreed.

The declaration - the latest major development in a tentative, on-again, off-again peace process that began in February - was timed to encourage the IRA to transform its traditional Christmas cease-fire, which normally lasts a few days, into a permanent cessation of violence.

"I cannot promise you today that the joint declaration will bring peace. That does not lie within my hands," Major said at a news conference. "But those who do not respond to it will show that they prefer violence for its own sake, because they are now offered a democratic alternative."

Reynolds, who met with Major at 10 Downing Street on Wednesday morning to put the finishing touches on the declaration, said that it "offers a framework for lasting peace. . . We hope this historic opportunity for peace will be taken."

The declaration was hailed as the most significant step taken by the two governments on Northern Ireland since the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985, which for the first time recognized that the Irish Republic has a consultative role in some matters concerning the northern Irish province of Ulster.

by CNB