Belfast (R.Unido) (EFE).- The British Minister for Northern Ireland, Chris Heaton-Harris, assured this Monday that the Good Friday agreement, which celebrates its 25th anniversary, has brought peace to the region, despite the fact that a “small number” of IRA dissidents opposed to the democratic path are still implicated in terrorist actions.
The historic pact signed on April 10, 1998, he recalled, contributed to “putting an end to almost 30 years” of conflict, after causing more than 3,500 deaths, and “broke down many of the barriers” that kept the communities traditionally “divided”. facing each other, the pro-British unionist and the pro-Irish nationalist.
“He allowed a generation to grow up in peace, in an increasingly prosperous society that is taking steps towards reconciliation,” Heaton-Harris said in an article written for the Belfast Telegraph newspaper.
The head of the province insisted that the Good Friday agreement gave “Northern Ireland a fresh start”, although the recent terrorist actions perpetrated by dissidents of the already inactive Irish Republican Army (IRA) is “a clear warning” that “They want us to go back to the dark days of the past.”
The Northern Irish Police (PSNI) has reported that they have “reliable intelligence information” about plans by dissident Republican groups to attack on Easter Monday, on the eve of the arrival in Belfast of US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister , Rishi Sunak, who will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the agreement in the capital.
Likewise, the Government of London already raised the level of the terrorist threat in Northern Ireland from “considerable” to “serious” last March in the face of the danger of actions by republican dissidents, shortly after the New IRA splinter tried to assassinate shots at a policeman
Heaton-Harris will accompany Sunak and Biden at the commemorative events of this anniversary, among which a visit to Stormont Castle, seat of the Northern Irish Autonomous Assembly and whose power-sharing government has been suspended for more than a year for Unionism’s rejection of the Brexit arrangements for the region.
Biden, of Irish origin, will travel to Dublin on Wednesday to continue his four-day tour of the island in the Republic of Ireland, where he plans to meet his ancestors in counties Louth and Mayo.
In this regard, Heaton-Harris has indicated that the brevity of the US president’s visit to Ulster, less than a day, should not be interpreted as a “snub”.