Taoiseach and Blair back IRA arms report

THE Irish and British Governments yesterday powerfully backed the international decommissioning body’s determination that the IRA has fully destroyed its vast arsenal of weapons, describing it as a landmark shift of deep historical significance.

In an extraordinary day, described by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern as momentous, the retired Canadian general who heads the decommissioning body (IICD) reported confidently that the IRA had fully decommissioned its weapons.

The report was strongly corroborated by two independent church witnesses, Fr Alex Reid and Methodist minister Rev Harold Good. They said the evidence was so incontrovertible that it demonstrated, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the arms of the IRA had been decommissioned.

Although the act of decommissioning was not photographed, nor any inventory supplied of the destroyed weaponry, immense pressure will be brought to bear by both governments to persuade the Democratic Unionist Party to engage with Sinn Féin in power-sharing negotiations.

In condemnation of yesterday’s announcement, DUP leader Ian Paisley said the lack of transparency had made it the “falsehood of the century”.

General de Chastelain and his colleagues, US diplomat Andrew Sens and Finnish brigadier Tauno Nieminen, delivered its report to both governments yesterday morning and later laid out its findings at a press conference outside Belfast.

“We have observed and verified events to put beyond use very large quantities of arms which we believe include all the arms in the IRA’s possession,” said Gen de Chastelain.

When pressed, he accepted that a great deal of secrecy surrounded the process. This he said was at the insistence of the IRA.

“Getting armed groups to put aside their arms voluntarily, without the perception that the act is one of humiliation and blame, is not simple.”

While he and Mr Sens conceded that the process involved an element of trust, both said that they were convinced that all the IRA’s arsenal had been destroyed. This was because the IICD had been supplied with estimates of the IRA’s arms cache by the security services of both governments. What was decommissioned, said Gen de Chastelain, was “consistent” with this. He was satisfied that all arms had been destroyed.

“You can take their (the IRA’s) word for it and our word for it and the words of the two witnesses for it. At some point, you get back to the original point. Yes, there’s an element of trust in this,” said Mr Sens.

Both governments moved quickly to endorse the report and confirm that, in their view, the IRA had verifiably put its arms beyond use.

“It’s a momentous day for people of this island, North and South,” said Mr Ahern.

“It’s a landmark development. It’s of real historic significance,” he said, before urging unionists not to underestimate its importance.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the peace process could now be completed. US President George W Bush last night welcomed it as a very positive development.

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams described it as a defining moment in the peace process. In a powerful assertion of republicans’ sincerity, he said: “Some unionists might fear that this is a tactical manoeuvre or an attempt to trap them. It is not. Some unionists have expressed fears about a Plan B. There is no Plan B. There is no secret agenda.

“The IRA’s decision to formally end the campaign and (decommission) are genuine attempts to revive the peace process by conclusively resolving the concerns of unionists.”

However, the DUP rejected the report, saying that there had been no transparency. Mr Paisley was uncompromisingly dismissive: “The promise made by (Mr Blair) that decommissioning must be transparent and verifiable and must satisfy everyone was broken.”

“There were no photographs, no detailed inventory. To describe the act as transparent would be the falsehood of the century,” he said.