IRA makes major move on decommissioning

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, AUG. 6. In what could prove to be a turning point in saving the Northern Ireland peace process, the IRA today made a major move on destroying its weapons to pave the way for further negotiations on ending the current political crisis.

It came in the form of an announcement by Gen. John de Chastelain, head of the weapons decommissioning body, that an IRA representative had proposed a method to put its weapons ``completely and verifiably beyond use''.

Though he did not give details of how this would be done, he was sufficiently impressed by the IRA's proposal to tell the British and Irish Governments that it met conditions of disarmament envisaged in the Good Friday Agreement.

The Northern Ireland Secretary, Dr. John Reid, welcomed the move and said it had the potential of resolving the issue of decommissioning which had stalled the peace process.

The Sinn Fein leader, Mr. Gerry Adams, called it a ``hugely historic breakthrough'' and said once again, the IRA had demonstrated its commitment to peace.

The move, he said, must now be matched by other parties who had been insisting on decommissioning as a precondition for going ahead with the Good Friday Agreement.

There was no immediate reaction from the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) whose leader, Mr. David Trimble, triggered a political crisis last month when he resigned as head of the provincial Government on the issue of decommissioning, saying his party would not share power with Sinn Fein so long as its paramilitary wing, the IRA, continued to hold on to its weapons.

The hardline Unionists, however, rejected the move arguing it did not provide any specific time-frame for de- weaponisation. Mr. Peter Robinson, deputy leader of the hawkish Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) dismissed it as IRA's yet another ``delaying tactic to gain further concessions.''

The IRA's announcement came in response to a set of proposals the British and Irish Governments had given to Northern Ireland's political parties last week, offering a series of concessions to Republicans on police reforms and their security concerns in return for an IRA commitment on decommissioning.

The proposals had been criticised by Unionists who believed that they were heavily tilted in favour of Republicans.

Today's development took observers by surprise as it came barely hours after Republicans were heard saying that the proposals did not fully meet their demands on policing and reducing the British security presence in Northern Ireland.

They wanted more firm and time-bound guarantees, and had asked for more time to consider the proposals.

In the event, the IRA response came well ahead of the official deadline which required both sides to give their views by midnight tonight. There was much speculation if, in the absence of details, the IRA's announcement would satisfy Mr. Trimble, particularly his party hardliners who have been insisting on physical destruction of weapons within a specific time-frame.

But analysts said the move would put pressure on Mr. Trimble and his colleagues, and if they were to reject it outright the blame for prolonging the crisis would certainly be laid at their door.

If there is no agreement until Aug. 12 - the constitutional deadline for finding a successor to Mr. Trimble - the British Government would be forced to either suspend the Northern Ireland Assembly or dissolve it and call fresh elections.

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