'No progress on IRA decommissioning'

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, JULY 2. The prospects of an early end to the deadlock in Northern Ireland further receded today after Gen. John de Chastelain's disarmament commission, in a much-awaited report, said there had been no indication from the IRA on destroying its weapons.

The commission pointed out that it had had a number of ``lengthy meetings'' with IRA since March and in each of these meetings it was assured of IRA's ``commitment'' to put its arms beyond use but how this would be done and when had not been spelt out.

The report, released a day after the Ulster Unionist leader, Mr. David Trimble, resigned as head of the power-sharing provincial Government to force the IRA to start decommissioning, was seen as a setback to the efforts by the British and Irish Governments to save the peace process. It prompted calls for a tougher stand against the IRA's political arm, Sinn Fein, including its expulsion from the Northern Ireland Government in which it shares power with Unionists. But commentators ruled out any precipitate action by London saying it would make a compromise even more difficult. Sinn Fein's expulsion would ``close the door completely to decommissioning'', The Independent said.

The de Chastelain Commission, which has inspected IRA's arms dumps several times, expressed its disappointment over lack of progress on disarmament but said it would continue its work despite calls to withdraw from the process. It said that the continued maintenance of the 1997 ceasefire by IRA and its decision to open up some of its arms dumps for international inspection indicated that its commitment to put its weapons beyond use ``completely and verifiably'' was made in ``good faith.'' ``We have, however, been unable to ascertain how the IRA will put its arms beyond use, except for the assurance that it will be complete and verifiable. The IRA has taken note of our need for this information but until we know what method will be used, we cannot judge if it meets our remit'', it said adding that the IRA had expressed eagerness to continue with his engagement with the commission.

The response from other paramilitary groups has been equally negative. The Ulster Volunteer Force, a major loyalist group, told the commission that it would not consider disarming until it knew of IRA's plans.

``Given the conditions the IRA, UVF and UFF say they require before they will put their arms beyond use, we believe we cannot influence that activity by making demands or by setting deadlines. But we will continue to do what we can to implement our mandate through continuing contact and discussion with each of the three paramilitary groups, insisting that the objectives of the legislation calling for arms to be rendered permanently inaccessible or permanently unusable are respected,'' the commission said.

Mr. Trimble, meanwhile, remained firm that there was no question of returning to the Government until IRA started disarming even as Sinn Fein accused him of engineering a crisis. ``IRA weapons have been silent for seven years and everybody knows there is no threat to the peace process from Sinn Fein nor, I believe, the IRA,'' a Sinn Fein leader told BBC Radio 4's Today programme saying if Mr. Trimble was really committed to the Good Friday Agreement he would not have resigned.

The Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair's official spokesman expressed disappointment over the outcome of the commission's talks with IRA but said efforts to find a solution would continue. ``In terms of where we are at the moment, no one is underestimating the difficulties that we face. Equally, no one should under- estimate the shared determination between the two Governments to try and move this forward,'' he said.

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