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.