Commission delivers report on paramilitary ceasefires

The Irish and British governments were today under pressure to publish a new commission’s first assessment of paramilitary ceasefires in Northern Ireland.

A report by the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) deals with loyalist and republican incidents, including the IRA abduction of prominent dissident Bobby Tohill.

The Tohill kidnapping took place from a Belfast city centre bar in February, fuelling concerns over Provisional activity.

Even though the IRA’s leadership claimed the abduction was not authorised, Northern Ireland Chief Constable Hugh Orde has publicly blamed them.

With unionists demanding sanctions against Sinn Féin over the Tohill case, the IMC decided to hand over its findings a month early.

Their dossier was on the desks of Justice Minister Michael McDowell and Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy last night, sources confirmed.

An official announcement is due to be made today.

The four-man IMC panel, drawn from intelligence, legal and political spheres in Britain, Ireland and the US, was set up last year and also instructed to examine progress towards normalising the military presence in Northern Ireland and other aspects of the Good Friday Agreement.

British government officials stressed no date for releasing the findings had been set.

One said: “We would obviously want to study this first, but I can’t see any reason for a long delay.”