Hume and Trimble clash over Clinton's peace role
Saturday March 08 2008
HILLARY Clinton's role in the North's peace process sparked a major disagreement yesterday between joint Nobel Prize winners John Hume and David Trimble.
The former Ulster Unionist leader claimed the US presidential hopeful had no direct role and is a "wee bit silly" for exaggerating her involvement.
"I don't know there was much she did apart from accompanying [former President] Bill [Clinton] going around," the former Stormont first minister said.
Her recent statements about being deeply involved were merely "the sort of thing people put in their canvassing leaflets" during elections, he suggested.
"She visited when things were happening, saw what was going on, she can certainly say it was part of her experience. I don't want to rain on the thing for her; but being a cheerleader for something is slightly different from being a principal player," he added.
However, Mr Trimble's co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize holds a different view.
In a statement -- unusually issued by Mrs Clinton's headquarters -- former SDLP leader John Hume insisted Mrs Clinton had played an important role.
Surprised
"I am quite surprised that anyone would suggest that Hillary Clinton did not perform important foreign policy work as first lady," Mr Hume said.
"I can state from first-hand experience that she played a positive role for over a decade in helping to bring peace to Northern Ireland. She visited Northern Ireland, met with very many people and gave very decisive support to the peace process.
"In private she made countless calls and contacts, speaking to leaders and opinion makers on all sides, urging them to keep moving forward."
Mrs Clinton has made the North key to her claims of having extensive foreign policy experience.
"I helped to bring peace to Northern Ireland," she told CNN on Wednesday.
Central to Mrs Clinton's claim of an important role is a meeting she attended in Belfast with a group of women from cross-community groups.
"I remember a meeting that I pulled together in Belfast, in the town hall there, bringing together for the first time Catholics and Protestants from both traditions, having them sitting a room where they had never been before with each other because they don't go to school together, they don't live together; and it was only in large measure because I really asked them to come that they were there."
Mary Fox, the wife of a former IRA prisoner and one of the seven women at the meeting, said she had been there on behalf of the Footprints community centre.
"It was quite a political change for the women's sector after the visit of Hillary Clinton," she said. "We would love to see her as president. She spoke to each of us and was very interested in our work. She was lovely."
OBAMA'S IRISH-BORN ADVISER FORCED OUT: PAGE 30
- Toby Harnden in Washington
