IMC: IRA leadership not sanctioning violence

Senior IRA men are lining their own pockets with the proceeds of crime but there is no evidence that the organisation’s leadership has sanctioned violent activity, a major new report claimed today.

The 10th report of the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) was the most positive yet on the IRA leadership’s efforts to give up on violence and crime, but it highlighted that the organisation had a “challenging task” ensuring full compliance among members.

The IMC said it was not aware of any current terrorist, paramilitary or violent activity sanctioned by the leadership.

The three-member commission said it remained their “absolutely clear view that the Provisional IRA (PIRA) leadership has committed itself to following a peaceful path”.

The report added that the IRA leadership was “working to bring the whole organisation fully along with it and has expended considerable effort to refocus the movement in support of its objective.

“In the last three months this process has involved the further dismantling of PIRA as a military structure.”

There had been no paramilitary shootings or attacks attributable to the Provisional IRA in the three months from December to February, said the IMC.

But it said they nevertheless had information on instances of PIRA members being involved in assaults and other violence, largely arising from personal or local disputes.

It stressed: “There is nothing to suggest that these individuals were involved in these actions either at the behest of the organisation or in their capacity as members of it.”

It said further: “We have had no indications in the last three months of training, engineering activity, recent recruitment or targeting for the purposes of attack.

“There has now been a substantial erosion in the PIRA’s capacity to return to a military campaign without a significant period of build-up, which in any event we do not believe they have any intentions of doing.”

The report noted that the murder in Co Donegal earlier this month of Denis Donaldson, the self-confessed British agent unmasked at the heart of the republican movement, took place after the period covered by the report.

They said they were not in a position to attribute responsibility and would continue to monitor the situation and report later.

The IMC said it had found signs the the PIRA continued to seek to stop criminal activity by its members and to prevent them from engaging in it. It believed some senior members were playing a key role in this.

The Commission said it believed volunteers who had previously engaged in illegal fundraising had been told to refrain from doing so.

The report continued: “That said, there are indications that some members, including some senior ones, (as distinct from the organisation itself) are still involved in crime, including offences such as fuel laundering, money laundering, extortion, tax evasion and smuggling.

“Some of these activities are deeply embedded in the culture of a number of communities, not least in the border areas, and increased proportions of the proceeds may now be going to individuals rather than the organisation.”

But the report added: “We have no reason to amend our earlier view that money is a strategic asset and that the organisation will look to the long-term exploitation of discreetly-laundered assets which were previously gained illegally.”

On the intelligence front, the report said that while the IRA had access to people in public and private organisations who could provide them with sensitive information on individuals which might be of use to them, “we have no indication that people are currently being tasked to supply such information”.

While the Provisional IRA continued to receive information from members and sympathisers, the IMC said it did not know of information being proactively sought.

Referring to reports of the retention of some weapons when decommissioning took place, the report said the IRA leadership had claimed only to have decommissioned all the arms “under its control”.

The commission’s present assessment was that such arms that had been reported to them as being retained would have been withheld under local control despite the instructions of the leadership.

And it said the unsurrendered material was “not significant in comparison to what was decommissioned”.

On the loyalist front, the picture of the Ulster Defence Association was less rosy.

The UDA continued to act violently, undertaking both shootings and assaults and aspired to arm and equip itself. Criminality within some parts of the organisation could be described as endemic, said the report.

Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain welcomed the report as positive and providing further evidence of the direction that PIRA and its leadership was taking.

He said: “The (British) government believes that it should make a helpful contribution to the rebuilding of trust and confidence in Northern Ireland which is necessary for a return to full devolution.”

The Government said the report had been presented to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern last week and he had discussed it with his ministers at yesterday’s Cabinet meeting.

A Government spokesman said: “It is a positive report for the peace process and an encouraging boost.

“The Irish Government believes it will add to the current constructive climate.”