Watchdog confirms IRA army council in ‘disuse’
The International Monitoring Commission (IMC) report states that the provisionals’ campaign of violence is “well and truly over” and the organisation has relinquished “the leadership necessary to wage war”.
DUP first minister Peter Robinson had demanded the disbandment of the seven-member army council, even though he has accepted it no longer meets for paramilitary purposes.
The IMC report comes against a backdrop of the start of crunch talks between unionists and republicans, aimed at securing the future of the north’s power-sharing government.
The report states the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) has allowed the army council to fall into “disuse”.
“Under PIRA’s own rules the army council was the body that directed its military campaign.
“Now that that campaign is well and truly over, the army council, by deliberate choice, is no longer operational or functional.
“This situation has been brought about by a conscious decision to let it fall into disuse rather than through any other mechanism.
“We now have a context where there are no longer the emotional drivers which caused the IRA to be resurrected in 1969 and the leadership, which created and moulded the modern-day PIRA, has turned its interest and attention exclusively to politics as the means of furthering its objectives.
“The mechanism which they have chosen to bring the armed conflict to a complete end has been the standing down of the structures which engaged in the armed campaign and the conscious decision to allow the army council to fall into disuse.
“By taking these steps, PIRA has completely relinquished the leadership and other structures appropriate to a time of armed conflict,” the report states.
Justice Minister Dermot Ahern said that the report’s conclusions were “very positive”.
“This report demonstrates not only that PIRA has gone away, but that it won’t be coming back.
“The IMC could not have been more unequivocal in its conclusion that the provisional movement is now irreversibly locked into following the political path,” he said.
Northern secretary Shaun Woodward said the report confirmed that the IRA had met its commitment.
“It has abandoned all terrorist structures, its recruitment and PIRA’s so-called military departments have ceased to function and have been disbanded. As the IMC made clear, the leadership structures have definitely ceased to function in the way they did during the time of conflict. This report confirms this has happened,” said Mr Woodward.
