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28 February 1996. The British and Irish Governments in a joint communiqué announce elections to a forum to be held in May and all-party negotiations to start on 10 June. All participants in the negotiations would have to make clear their total and absolute commitment to the Mitchell principles. Sinn Féin would be allowed to participate in the forum (a fact-finding and debating body), but to take part in the negotiations it would have to persuade the IRA to renew its ceasefire and if IRA violence resumed during the negotiations Sinn Féin would then be excluded.
End April 1996. John Bruton, who had become Taoiseach in December, says "prior decommissioning of arms would not be allowed to stand in the way of progress towards full negotiations
16 May 1996. Major says that Sinn Féin could be admitted to negotiations after a new IRA ceasefire but that decommissioning would need to be addressed at the beginning of the talks.
30 May 1996. Elections to the Northern Ireland Forum for Political Dialogue. Sinn Féin obtains 15.5 per cent of the votes.
14 June 1996. The Forum meets for the first time, boycotted by Sinn Féin.
15 June 1996. The IRA bombs the centre of Manchester.
26 February 1997. The Oireachtas passes the Decommissioning Act, 1997 and the next day the British Parliament passes the Northern Ireland Arms Decommissioning Act 1997. This legislation gives the Irish Minister for Justice and the British Secretary of State powers to set up decommissioning schemes under which holders of illegal arms would be able to decommission them within a specified amnesty period. Four methods of decommissioning were recognised. Three involved helping an independent Commission to be set up by the British and Irish governments, or some other designated person, to acquire and destroy the arms. Under the fourth, the holders of the arms would destroy them themselves.
29 April 1997. Writing in the Irish Times, Major says that "some decommissioning would have to take place during talks" but that Sinn Féin would be admitted after a ceasefire.
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