International   

Irish Republican Army gives up weapons

Hasan Suroor

LONDON: The 30-year-long armed struggle in Northern Ireland was formally declared over on Monday when the Irish Republican Army (IRA) announced that it had destroyed all its weapons and would, henceforth, pursue solely political means to achieve its aim of a united Ireland.

The claim was confirmed by General John de Chastelain, head of the independent international body which supervised the decommissioning, and by two priests who witnessed the historic act.

A report, confirming the decommissioning, was sent to the British and Irish governments on Monday morning.

Later, at a press conference, Gen de Chastelain said his commission had "observed'' and "verified'' a series of acts of decommissioning and was "satisfied'' that all of IRA's arms had been put beyond use. They represented the "totality'' of IRA's arsenal, he said.

"The arms decommissioning is consistent with the estimates [of IRA's arsenal],'' he said but declined to give details.

Gen de Chastelain called it a "milestone'' and said he hoped that other paramilitary groups in the province would follow suit.

The move came two months after the IRA's historic statement promising to put its arms "beyond use'' in a "verifiable'' way, and declaring that its volunteers had been ordered to pursue "exclusively peaceful means'' to achieve their goal.

Gerry Adams, president of IRA's political wing, Sinn Fein, said the development would "dramatically change'' the political landscape of Northern Ireland.

Scepticism

There had been scepticism whether the IRA would actually follow its promise through but the speed with which it moved to implement it took its critics by surprise though hardline Unionists insisted that they had expected the process of decommissioning to be more transparent.

The moderate Ulster Unionist Party leader Reg Empey extended a cautious welcome saying there had been many false dawns and only time would tell if IRA was sincere in implementing its promise. Peter Hain, secretary of state for Northern Ireland, hoped the decommissioning would lead to a complete cessation of all "paramilitary activity and violence''.

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

Stories in this Section

Koizumi pledges to press for U.N. Security Council reform
Typhoon slams into southern China
Irish Republican Army gives up weapons
Israeli offensive despite Hamas pledge to halt fire
Prisoner says U.S. told him to spy
Temperature-controlled sand
Teachers killed in Iraq
Journalist hurt in car blast
Dialogue needed to strengthen India-Bangladesh ties
India festival in Moscow
Indian shot dead in New York
Dai, Narayanan hold talks
Bring Doha agenda back on track: Chidambaram

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