IRA 'has met its commitment' to disarm: De Chastelain

General John de Chastelain has said the IRA has disarmed "the totality of its arsenal".

The general was speaking at a press conference to confirm the IRA's disarmament. He is accompanied by independent witnesses Methodist minister Harold Good and Redemptorist priest Alex Reid.

"The IRA has met its commitment to put all its arms beyond use in accordance with the legislation," Gen. de Chastelain said.

He added the decommissioning body had taken an inventory of all the decommissioned weapons, which he said constituted "the totality of the IRA's arsenal" and conformed to estimated inventories provided by the Irish and British governments.

The IRA vowed to complete the process before the end of this year after declaring an end to its armed struggle in July.

General de Chastelain was appointed to oversee IRA disarmament 10 years ago and has already presided over several smaller acts of decommissioning.

Unionists, however, have dismissed the previous acts as meaningless due to the IICD's failure to reveal details of what exactly was decommissioned.

For that reason, the IRA agreed to allow two Catholic and Protestant churchmen to witness its final act of disarmament.

Those independent witnesses - Catholic priest Alex Reid and former Methodist president Harold Good - said today that they could verify the truth of General de Chastelain's statement and were "utterly certain" about its veracity.

They said they had spent several days watching the general and his colleagues going about the destruction of "huge amounts" of weaponry and explosives.

They said it was clear "beyond any shadow of doubt" that "the arms of the IRA have now been decommissioned".