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BELFAST - In a way there isn't a better figure than Martin McGuinness to take the lead in an extraordinary session of Iraqi peace talks which, it has just emerged, secretly took place in Helsinki.
The 16 representatives of Sunni and Shiite factions who for four days sat together in uneasy proximity, knew that McGuinness, now Northern Ireland's number two public figure, was an IRA commander.
So when he told them that violence should cease and that inclusive dialogue was the way ahead, they listened. In addition, they agreed a set of principles as a basis for further talks.
While it is an exaggeration to characterise this, as McGuinness has, as "a tremendous breakthrough", it is surely encouraging that the round of talks did not end in bitter recriminations and angry walkouts.
At the same time, the 12 issues specifying commitment to non-violence and democracy, eventual disarmament, full participation in a political process and others demonstrate what a daunting task reaching eventual agreement will be.
Nonetheless, the fact that the conference was co-chaired by McGuinness and a former South African minister, Rolf Meyer, must have driven home the message that even the most intractable conflicts can be brought to an end. McGuinness and Meyer made detailed presentations on how Northern Ireland and South Africa had reached political settlements.
The Iraqis were, the Sinn Fein leader said, "amazed and very impressed" to see him in government with the Rev Ian Paisley.
Once all sides had signalled they were amenable to these exploratory talks, a well-used international network came into play. There exist many organisations keen to facilitate such dialogue. At least two were involved in this instance.
One was the Helsinki-based Crisis Management Initiative, an independent, non-profit organisation specialising in conflict resolution. Its founder, the former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, has been involved in peacemaking in areas such as Namibia and Kosovo. In 2005 the group helped to broker a peace deal between the Indonesian Government and separatist rebels in Aceh.
The other group behind the Iraq initiative was a department of the University of Massachusetts in Boston, a college which has for decades sought to promote dialogue in Northern Ireland.
A decade ago Boston academics helped take Northern Ireland political parties to South Africa for an exercise which seems to demonstrate the futility of such efforts. Both the African National Congress and the National Party invited Unionists and republicans to a conference but Unionists insisted they should have no direct contact with the Sinn Fein delegation.
Because of this, Nelson Mandela ended up making separate addresses to two different segregated audiences. The irony of this self-imposed apartheid was not lost on the hosts or those attending the talks. One of the Sinn Fein delegation on that occasion was Martin McGuinness, who at that stage was learning how to make peace. Then he was a pupil, while today he has become an instructor.
McGuinness's career as a conciliator has been short but took a dramatic turn when earlier this year he and Ian Paisley took office together at the head of a historic new Belfast administration.
The fact that they did so was regarded as astonishing; so too was the way they were able to, right from the start, work together in the most affable manner. As McGuinness put it yesterday: "In the course of the last three months there hasn't been an angry word between us."
Today, even Paisley accepts that the one-time man of war has become a man of peace, with lessons to teach Iraq and the rest of the world on how conflict can be resolved.
- Independent
