3 paramilitary factions announce destruction of arsenals

THREE Northern Irish paramilitary factions announced the destruction of their illegal arsenals yesterday, 24 hours before an amnesty on the movement of weapons by groups carrying out decommissioning ends.

The largest caches of weapons disposed of, in a process overseen by the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD), belonged to the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) and Official IRA. The two republican socialist organisations put beyond use several sub-machine guns, as well as rifles, handguns and explosives.

The INLA decommissioning was witnessed by independent observers, including ICTU vice president Peter Bunting.