David Sharrock
A CAPE game reserve will play host this weekend to Northern Ireland’s main politicians in a peace conference just days before talks on the province’s future resume in Belfast.
David Trimble, the Ulster Unionist leader, Sinn Fein negotiator Martin McGuinness, and Peter Robinson, deputy leader of the Democratic Unionists, are all understood to be attending.
But to ensure the fullest possible representation at the conference, its organiser, Irish-American academic Padraig O’Malley, has said that “a kind of apartheid” is being created.
Representatives of all the parties elected to the all-party negotiations in last May’s forum poll have been invited, but they will travel to the conference separately. More than 20 delegates were due to fly in this week: Sinn Fein delegates with Aer Lingus from Dublin, the rest with British Airways from Belfast.
On touching ground in Johannesburg, participants will be shepherded to separate military aircraft for their onward journey to the Cape.
At their destination, believed to be an exclusive game reserve, the “apartheid system” will continue with separate accommodation, eating, socialising and conference facilities. Every session during the four-day conference will be replicated so that Unionists and Sinn Fein do not have to share the same room.
Sixteen South Africans who took part in the multi-party negotiations will explain their experiences. Roelf Meyer and Cyril Ramaphosa are both reported to be participating.