https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz69nz3zqjpo

The British and Irish governments have appointed a conflict resolution expert to explore the merits of talks with paramilitary groups about disbandment.

Fleur Ravensbergen is based at the University of Amsterdam.

She could meet representatives of loyalist and republican organisations over the coming months and will deliver a report next August.

Justice minister Naomi Long described the move as inappropriate.
Ms Long speaking as she looks to her left, she has long ginger hair, pink lipstick and is wearing a black and white patterned top with a silver chain necklace.Image source, PA Media
Image caption,

The Justice Minister said talks with paramilitary groups is not "the appropriate approach"

The two governments first announced the idea in February.

Ms Ravensbergen will assess whether "there is merit in and support for" a formal process of engagement and report back to London and Dublin.

The governments said, among others, she will meet victims of paramilitary activity.

Long repeated her opposition to the idea in a statement issued by the Alliance Party.

She said: "We do not believe that this is the appropriate approach.

"Twenty-eight years after the Good Friday Agreement, the route to ending paramilitarism has to be through more robust law enforcement, coupled with more targeted community relations work to tackle vulnerability and the harms they cause.

"There can be no negotiation or sweeteners involved."

Sinn Fein said paramilitary groups should immediately disband.

Its north Belfast MLA Gerry Kelly added: "Any process must not prolong the existence of these unwanted paramilitaries and they must also not be financially rewarded for leaving the stage."

by ImNotSureIAgree

13 comments

  2. >A number of dissident republican groups are still active

    Interesting to see what the BBC chose to highlight here..

  3. It’s been like 26 years of talk lol that’s ridiculous, if it hasn’t been achieved by this point it’s not going to

  4. >explore the merits of talks with paramilitary groups about disbandment

    Im sorry, what merits. Theyre proscribed organisations and as thus are illegal. Close them down or arrest them. But sure we all know, the network of spooks hold too much information that could come back to haunt the government, so they will continue to pay them under the table

  5. >Ms Long speaking as she looks to her left, she has long ginger hair, pink lipstick and is wearing a black and white patterned top with a silver chain necklace.

    She sounds stunning! 😍

  6. If only we could get loyalist terrorists to peacefully hold up some signs, then the British police would swing into action and arrest them by the hundreds

  8. Trying to convince them to disband when they clearly don’t want to or have any interest in it, if they did they would have long ago, why aren’t they just jailing them? Would save a lot of local business owners a lot of money

  9. There are no paramilitaries anymore they are just gangs, and even if they ‘disband’, the same people are going to be running around drug dealing and beating people the same way they do in any other country.

  10. Conflict resolution consultants must make so much money in NI

  11. Nah, fuck em. Everyone has political representation in Northern Ireland since the GFA.

    Forcibly dismantle them.

  12. Fleur Ravensbergen .. you are entering a den that is full of snakes and deviants. They have no interest in mediation and you don’t have the skills to talk at scumbag level. More millions wasted when the real answer is to build another jail and throw all the fuckheads into it.

  13. I wouldn’t worry about it…….if its not the paramilitaries it’ll be another gang causing terror. Which is exactly what’s happening with illegal immigrants flooding our country. In a few years time maybe people will wish the paramilitaries had’ve stuck about and dusted off their balaclavas.

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