Troops in North ‘above peacetime target’

BRITISH troop levels in the North are three times higher than the peacetime target, a watchdog body confirmed yesterday.

Despite half of all spy towers being demolished in the last five years, the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) found no real move towards establishing the 5,000-strong garrison due to operate after the terror threat is lifted.

Nearly 50% of army base closures needed to achieve the post-conflict level have also taken place, the assessment showed.

The IMC, which was set up to restore confidence in the battered peace process, refused to comment on the speed of change.

But as the British Government stressed it was up to paramilitaries to make the first move, commissioners warned tough scrutiny would follow once the British normalisation strategy is disclosed.

Joe Brosnan, a retired Irish civil servant, said: “We will have to address the core question of what measures beyond the normal are justified by the security threat, which is subject to change.”

Mr Brosnan sits on the four-man body alongside Richard Kerr, a former deputy director of the CIA, Commander John Grieve, former head of the Metropolitan Police’s anti-terrorist squad and John Alderdice, the former Speaker of the Assembly.

London and Dublin hope the commission will boost efforts to revive the power-sharing Assembly.

Having already delivered a scathing dossier on continued paramilitary activity, it has now turned its attention to demilitarisation.

Prime Minister Tony Blair has pledged to slash the army presence once the IRA declares its war is over.

Although no announcement from the Provisionals that they are going out of business is imminent, several military bases have been closed down.

All moves on a security scale-down between December 1999 and the end of May 2004 have been assessed by the IMC.

The 56-page report found: “When the British Army are at garrison strength, there would be some 5,000 personnel in Northern Ireland - about a third of the present figure.

“The gap between current actual deployment and the envisaged peace time level is still very wide.”

Northern Ireland security minister Ian Pearson said the day when normal arrangements are in place cannot come soon enough. “All normalisation arrangements must be contingent upon and must be measured against the prevailing security threat,” he said.

But Sinn Féin, which faced financial punishments following the IMC probe into the IRA’s ceasefire, claimed the body had no credibility among nationalists and republicans.

Alex Maskey said: “The fact that republican heartlands are still saturated with spy posts and war apparatus almost 10 years on from the IRA cessation is an indictment of the British failure to honour their commitments to demilitarise.”