De Chastelain: 'We can't force people to believe us'

Head of the international decommissioning commission General John de Chastelain has said that no one on the commission could force anyone to believe their announcement that the IRA had puts its weapons beyond use.

He accepted that an element of trust was necessary to accept the historic announcement.

"We have nothing to gain in telling you this has been done. We're telling you what we think," he said in response to reporters' comments that the world only has the body's word that the disarmament has taken place.

In an historic announcement, General John de Chastelain said “very large quantities of arms, which we believe include all the arms in the IRA’s possession”, have been put beyond use.

Speaking at a news conference outside Belfast, the general said he and his fellow members on the commission had been provided with estimates in 2004 by the British and Irish security forces on what the IRA arsenal was believed to be.

An inventory of weapons decommissioned was “consistent with these estimates”, he said.

The general said: "We are satisfied the arms decommissioned represent the totality of the IRA's arsenal."

He said it included ammunition, rifles, machine guns, mortars, missiles, handguns, explosive substances and other arms, including all the categories described in the estimates by the security forces, he said.

He went on: “The Commission has determined the IRA has met its commitment to put all its arms beyond use in a manner called for by legislation.”

He said it remained for the Commission to address the issue of loyalist arms and he asked everyone with influence to use it to that end.