Disarmament must not be half-hearted

A DEFINITIVE statement by the IRA, promising to decommission its arsenal of deadly weapons is imminent, but whether the organisation is prepared to put an end to criminality once and for all is still unclear.

At long last, it seems, diehard elements of the main republican movement have been convinced that politics is a viable alternative to the gun.

Past masters of the drip-by-drip process of public relations, the deft hand of Sinn Féin can be seen all over the carefully stage-managed choreography of what promises to be an historic milestone on the political landscapes, North and South.

Hence the visits that Gerry Adams paid to the British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

It also explains why Sinn Féin’s chief negotiator, Martin McGuinness, and activist Rita O’Hare, have travelled to America to brief White House officials and republican supporters on the imminent announcement.

As Mr McGuinness put it, hard choices will have to be taken but he thought republicans were “up for that”.

Mr Ahern spoke for the nation when he emphasised that full decommissioning, an end to criminality and the cessation of the IRA campaign were vital.

Doubtless, hardliners will always oppose the notion of the IRA getting on the peace train. Therefore, the challenge facing the leadership will be to convince them to come on board rather than defect to breakaway factions hell-bent on terrorism.

A key question is how decommissioning will be carried out. How, for instance, will the IRA react if Ian Paisley and the DUP demand the publication of pictures showing republicans posing as guns are destroyed in the background?

Perceived as a form of humiliation, such demands have been a stumbling block to progress in the past.

Not only should guns be put beyond reach, there can be no question of a halfway house on criminality.

No longer can murders, bank robberies, knee-cappings, intimidation, spying, smuggling or any other kind of organised crime be tolerated. If the peace process is to mean anything, Sinn Féin cannot maintain its cynical nod-and-wink attitude towards violence.

Nor should there be any question of a disbanded IRA playing an ongoing role in the policing of nationalist areas. That would simply enable the men of violence to tighten their grip of fear in local communities.

Effectively, it would be a cynical ploy to exclude the North’s police force, the PSNI, from nationalist areas, something that would be unacceptable. After turning its back on military tactics, it is moot whether the IRA will slip quietly into the pages of history or if it will continue to exist in name only.

An acid test of the IRA’s commitment to peace may well be seen if the Assets Recovery Agency, the North’s counterpart of the Republic’s successful Criminal Assets Bureau, takes up the call by Justice Minister Michael McDowell for the property of individuals with no visible source of income to be seized and sold.

One way or another, events will soon tell if the IRA is genuinely going out of business or if its members will persist with criminal activities under the banner of peace.