Durkan warns over private army

THE IRA must not be allowed to operate a private army for criminal or pseudo-commercial purposes, SDLP leader Mark Durkan said yesterday.

Warning that the IRA must end all illegal activities, Mr Durkan said a political army should not be allowed to turn into a criminal one. "It's important that we don't have a notion of privatisation out there, that we don't have a private army for political purposes any more but we're allowed a privatised army for criminal or pseudo-commercial purposes.

"It's also important that we don't have a notion that people are licensed to do what they want as long as it is on a personal basis, not on a corporate basis," he said.