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IRA in a reasonable mode

The announcement by the Irish Republican Army that it has ordered an end to its three decade-long armed campaign against the British government is a momentous breakthrough in the Northern Ireland peace process. The IRA's refusal all along to disband or disarm, dismantle its parallel government in Catholic areas of Northern Ireland, and submit itself to the rule of law ensured that the 1998 Good Friday Agreement did not get off the ground. That pact was for Catholics and Protestants to share power in a Northern Ireland Assembly. However, the organisation came under tremendous pressure to disarm after its involvement in several criminal acts, notably a bank robbery in December 2004 and the murder of Robert McCartney, a Catholic, in March 2005. Among those pushing the IRA to change its ways was Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Fein, its political wing. Visiting the U.S. days after the killing, Mr. Adams found himself facing the outrage of the sizable Irish-American community. American politicians who backed the Irish cause shunned him. These developments seem to have played a big role in the IRA's decision to give up violence. The July 28 announcement asked all IRA units to "dump arms." Volunteers were instructed "to assist the development of purely political and democratic programmes through exclusively peaceful means," and not to engage in "any other activities whatsoever." While the IRA's pledge "verifiably [to] put its arms beyond use" can be tested only in the coming months, there is a real prospect of activating the Good Friday Agreement.

The IRA decision is a message to armed insurgencies everywhere. While extremist violence may serve to highlight the existence of a societal problem, it soon becomes the problem in itself, as the continuing brutish ways of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam demonstrate. The group suspended its military campaign against the Sri Lankan government after a ceasefire in February 2002 but its decision to keep open the option of armed struggle, and to this end, build on its military strength by smuggling in weapons and other means of war, including material for a nascent air force, is 90 per cent of the reason for the Sri Lankan peace process not taking off. On the strength of its weapons and fighting capabilities, the LTTE has established a regime of terror in North-East Sri Lanka. It continues to recruit children as fighters, extorts `taxes,' and intimidates and liquidates opponents. Unfortunately, there is insufficient international pressure on the LTTE to abandon the path of violence. Those within the Sri Lankan Tamil community demanding an end to the killings and counter-killings are discouraged by peace facilitator Norway's indulgent attitude to the LTTE. But there is no escaping the fact that unless the Tigers change their stripes, Sri Lanka's search for an enduring peace will remain unsuccessful.

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