International   

IRA: from terrorist group to political force

Angelique Chrisafis

Organisation was responsible for more than 1,700 deaths

BELFAST: The first glimpse of the Irish Republican Army's (IRA) new image came at the commemoration for the 18th-century Irish revolutionary hero Wolfe Tone in Kildare county last month. Instead of the usual grim-faced republican flag-bearers in black berets, khaki jumpers and dark glasses there was a genteel parade of men in green blazers and fawn slacks. They could have been mistaken, as one commentator put it, for tennis umpires at Wimbledon.

The IRA's metamorphosis from one of the world's most feared and efficient terrorist groups into a benign veterans' organisation will be one of the most remarkable shifts in Irish history — if it happens.

After 30 years of Northern Ireland's dirty war, in which the Provisional IRA was responsible for more than 1,700 deaths and saw hundreds of its own members killed, it is now to become, in effect, an old comrades' association. Members will be stood down from active service and instead engage in ``purely political'' activities based around republican clubs.

A decade on from the first ceasefire, and seven years after the Good Friday Agreement, this may be the moment of truth. The IRA must not only put away its guns but prove that it has ended all crime, including robbery and money laundering which, critics claim, have been used to fund it and Sinn Fein's activities.

Bullyboy methods

An eternity in sackcloth and ashes may never convince the hardline Ian Paisley, now the undisputed leader of unionism, that its intentions are honourable.

But neither can republicans ignore the fears of ordinary Protestants or moderate nationalists sceptical of their motives and fearful of their bullyboy methods.

But Tony Blair hopes the IRA statement — accompanied by an act of complete decommissioning — will inject some adrenaline into a stalled peace process. He is desperate to secure a once unthinkable power-sharing arrangement in which Mr Paisley sits down in government at Stormont with Sinn Fein.

Main target

But if Northern Ireland is to truly govern itself, there needs to be a further, final act of transformation from republicans. The British and Irish Governments have made clear that Sinn Fein must endorse the new Police Service of Northern Ireland, the reformed RUC, which was the main target of IRA attacks during the troubles. This will be as difficult for the police who saw hundreds of their comrades murdered to swallow as it will be for republicans, who always viewed the almost exclusively Protestant force as a sectarian militia. Men who have killed members of the police may even end up serving alongside, helping to administer or at least work with, the new force.

The truth is that often brutal and arbitrary parallel paramilitary policing systems, republican and loyalist, operate in larges swaths of Northern Ireland.

Many republicans may be reluctant to give up the almost total control over their communities, and despite Thursday's statement, many people will continue to view the IRA as their legitimate police force.

While republicans were debating their future, one 64-year-old farmer in its South Armagh heartland told the Guardian: ``I live on an isolated farm. Who am I going to call if someone breaks in? The IRA. They will sort it out. We don't go to the police here, there's too much history.''

Eventually, Sinn Fein will have to call a special party conference to debate policing before it can move to join the policing board. Control over justice and the police could then be devolved to Stormont from Westminster.

The first step will have to be a definitive act of decommissioning in which the IRA discards all its remaining weapons. General John de Chastelain, the Canadian decommissioning chief, will watch as weapons are destroyed. But the choreography of the event will be markedly different from the last disastrous effort in October 2003, when he emerged bedraggled and exhausted from his secret rendezvous and failed to provide unionists with a convincing account of what he had seen.

- Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

IRA: from terrorist group to political force
Pakistan signs terrorism pact with ASEAN
From the Jurassic age
Rice tops power list; Sonia misses it
Korea talks to continue amid differences
Shuttle crew confident of safe return
Double standards: Russia
Musharraf: we want to move ahead
Musharraf expels foreign students in madrasas

Copyright © 2005, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu