    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book I)]
    [May 6, 2000]
    [Page 858]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Statement on the Northern Ireland Peace Process
    May 6, 2000

        I want to join Prime Ministers Blair and
    Ahern in welcoming the IRA's commitment to
    initiate a process that will completely and verifiably put arms beyond
    use and its decision to resume contact with the Independent
    International Commission on Decommissioning. This is a significant step
    toward realizing the full promise of the Good Friday accord. I urge the
    loyalist paramilitaries to do the same.
        I express appreciation to Martti Ahtisaari and Cyril Ramaphosa for
    their willingness to take part in confidence-building measures involving
    third party inspection of IRA weapons dumps. I have great confidence in
    their ability to contribute to this important task.
        These developments offer renewed hope to the people of Northern
    Ireland that politics will once and for all be pursued through
    exclusively political means. The United States remains ready to assist
    this process in any way we can.

    Note: The statement referred to Prime Minister Tony Blair of the United
    Kingdom; Prime Minister Bertie Ahern of Ireland; former President Martti
    Ahtisaari of Finland; and former Secretary-General Cyril Ramaphosa of
    South Africa's African National Congress.