[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 19 (Monday, May 15, 2000)]
[Page 1026]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
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: In his statement, the President 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.