IRA decommissioning 'could be finished by February'

IRA decommissioning could be completed before February 2002 if the paramilitary group put large amounts of weapons beyond use over the coming days, the head of the International Disarmament Commission told rebel Ulster Unionists this week.

The disclosure came today in a transcript of a meeting between General John de Chastelain and Ulster Unionist MLAs Peter Weir and Pauline Armitage, who hold the key to party leader David Trimble’s re-election as First Minister of the Stormont power-sharing government.

The transcript said IRA representatives took the decommissioning body members to a site on the island of Ireland to witness the act of disarmament.

Asked by Mrs Armitage if he believed decommissioning could be completed by February of 2002, which is the cut-off point for his commission’s work, General de Chastelain said: ‘‘If it came in large amounts over a period of days, then we would be completed long before that.

‘‘We have always felt that two months was an adequate amount of time.

‘‘If we are working to a target, when we approach the point when we cannot meet it we would approach government and tell them."

The general told the Ulster Unionist at a meeting on Wednesday, ahead of today’s crunch vote in the Assembly for new First and Deputy First ministers, that he did not travel to the site of decommissioning ‘‘by helicopter or by sea’’.

‘‘I was on the island of Ireland but I do not know exactly where,’’ he said.

‘‘I could have got there by car, by bicycle or I could have walked.’’

He also confirmed that an inventory of the IRA weapons was taken, although serial numbers were not noted.

The disarmament body members handled the weapons, which were operational.

General de Chastelain would not go into any detail about the specific type of explosives and weapons involved.

Mr Weir and Ms Armitage had been seeking clarification from General de Chastelain over what IRA decommissioning he had witnessed before they decide whether to back Mr Trimble’s bid to return to the top post in the multi-party Executive at Stormont.