Sinn Féin rejects report on paramilitary activity

THE latest report on paramilitary activity in the North which said the IRA showed no sign of winding down was yesterday rejected by Sinn Féin as “of little interest.”

However, the four-member Independent Monitoring Commission, which assesses republican and loyalist paramilitary activity, told the British and Irish Governments the number of so-called punishment attacks by the Provisionals had decreased.

The commission noted that in the South, the organisation appeared to have closed down some of its organised crime activity and there was no real evidence of violent paramilitary activity on the ground.