Hardline unionists demand answers from decommissioning chief

The head of the international decommissioning body in Belfast, General John de Chastelain, was due to face questions from hardline unionists today about the latest act of IRA disarmament.

As nationalist SDLP leader Mark Durkan also prepared to put forward proposals on how to repair the damage to Northern Ireland’s latest peace process deal, the General was due to meet members of the Rev Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists and also Robert McCartney’s UK Unionists separately.

Unionists have been unhappy with the lack of clarity about the quantity of arms put beyond use by the IRA in its latest decommissioning act.

On Tuesday, the general reported that the IRA decommissioned a consignment of weapons that was larger than before.

However, when he was unable to go into specific details about the disarmament process, it angered David Trimble’s Ulster Unionists who put on hold their contribution to a series of choreographed moves also involving the IRA, Sinn Féin and the British and Irish governments.

Those moves would have created a better climate for the Assembly elections scheduled for November 26.

In Britain's House of Commons yesterday, Prime Minister Tony Blair said he was trying to find a way to resolve the concerns over decommissioning, including a way around the confidentiality clause invoked by the IRA in its dealings with General de Chastelain.

“We are not at liberty to disclose that information but we are working hard to find a way to try and disclose it,” he told MPs.

However, republicans have warned the UK government not to tinker with the decommissioning arrangements between the IRA and the decommission body, insisting it could do serious damage to the credibility of the process.

At an angry press conference in Belfast yesterday, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said he had not yet been given “a satisfactory explanation” why David Trimble suspended the choreography which would have sealed the latest peace process deal.

The West Belfast MP insisted that everything had been agreed beforehand.

However, Mr Trimble continued to blame republicans for the derailment of the deal.

In a bid to repair the damage in the relationship between both parties, Sinn Féin chief negotiator Martin McGuinness met the Ulster Unionists’ Michael McGimpsey.

Efforts to overcome the difficulty could be stepped up over the coming days with some talks sources insisting that an intensive effort may be launched this weekend to restore the deal.

But with Mr Trimble preparing to face his Ulster Unionist Council in a key vote on whether power sharing can be restored, some colleagues were insisting that the package was now “damaged goods” in the eyes of many unionist voters.

It is understood Mr Durkan was contacted yesterday by the British prime minister and consulted about his view of the breakdown in the process.

The SDLP was not party to the deal and was shut out along with smaller pro-Good Friday Agreement parties of the negotiations leading to it.

During a visit to Dublin today, he was expected to stress the need for inclusivity in the process and a collective effort to get it back on track.

As the DUP prepared for its meeting with General de Chastelain in Belfast today, a party spokesman said it would “be trying to establish facts about his recent contacts with the IRA".

The DUP delegation comprises the party’s five MPs and its Lagan Valley Assembly candidate Andrew Hunter, who is also MP for Basingstoke.