Commission: IRA has 'destroyed its weapons'
But Protestants in N. Ireland are skeptical because of lack of visible evidence.
When the IRA announced last July an
end to its armed campaign, saying that it would "follow a democratic path ending more than 30 years of violence," more than a few people expressed doubts. But the
BBC reports that on Monday, Canadian Gen. John de Chastelain, the head of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning, announced that the "IRA has destroyed all its arms." General de Chastelain was accompanied by two churchmen who
witnessed the process.
The general said: "We have observed and verified events to put beyond use very large quantities of arms which we believe include all the arms in the IRA's possession."
He said they had handled every gun and made an
inventory of the weapons. The arms included a full range of ammunition, rifles, machine guns, mortars, missiles, handguns, explosives, explosive substances and other arms including all the categories described in the estimates provided by the UK and Irish security services, he said.
Political leaders in Ireland hailed the announcement as historic. The
Los Angeles Times reports that British Prime Minister Tony Blair called it "
a step of unparalleled magnitude," while Ireland's Prime Minister Bertie Ahern described it as a "landmark development of historical significance."
The Daily Telegraph describes how the IRA's decision
to give up its arms came about.
The Belfast Telegraph looks at the reaction in Belfast to the news, which it says comes as "Sigh of relief ...
but not a hallelujah."
While refusing to discuss the method by which the arms were destroyed, the two churchmen, a Catholic priest and a Methodist minister, said the arms cache was huge. De Chastelain said he would not issue a list of the weapons destroyed until Protestant militias also disarmed. But the two main Protestant groups have refused to do so.
In an editorial,
Newsday writes that now that the IRA has gotten rid of its weapons, it is "incumbent on the British and Irish governments" to make sure the Protestant militias
are also disarmed. "The destruction of all their weapons must be verified as well by arms monitors," writes Newsday.
But the
Associated Press reports that Ian Paisley, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, which holds a veto over reviving the power-sharing agreement with Sinn Fein, said "the
IRA had probably lied to the inspectors and were keeping weapons in reserve. He said the IRA's requirements for secrecy showed they had something to hide." The AP added that Paisley said it would be years, if ever, before his party "would give in to pressure to join Sinn Fein in a joint government for Northern Ireland."
"There were no photographs, no detailed inventory, and no detail on the destruction of these arms. To describe today's statement as transparent would be the falsehood of the century," Paisley said.
The Scotsman reports that Paisley's party
had demanded photographs of the destruction of the arms and wanted to pick the Protestant clergyman who would witness the process. But the IRA refused to allow pictures to be taken, and named the two clergymen themselves.
The Times of London writes that this lack of concrete evidence is going to make it hard for unionists to overcome their suspicions about the IRA's intentions. And the paper says de Chastelain
bears some responsibility for this problem.
In September 2003 it was his failure to say enough to impress Unionists that brought down David Trimble, whose determination to see the Good Friday agreement implemented ��� in spite of IRA intransigence ��� exhausted the voters' patience.
So here was the general once more trying to make a convincing case that the Provos [IRA] really had got rid of all their weapons this time. And here he was, facing the same problem all over again, hobbled by the IRA's 'confidentiality' rules.
The
BBC reports Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain welcomes the IRA's move, but said
it was natural for the unionists to be suspicious about the IRA's truthfulness.
"I wouldn't have expected Ian or the unionists to just bowl over and welcome everything with open arms because they've got a lot of cause to be sceptical and suspicious over the behaviour of the IRA in the past," he told BBC News on Tuesday. "The IRA have often promised to do things and then reneged on them." Former US Sen. George Mitchell, who chaired talks that led to the 1998 Good Friday peace accord, told
RTE Radio that unionists
must trust the IRA's decommissioning of its arms, and move to help restore Northern Ireland's power-sharing government.
"They have to accept the reality that this is the manner in which it is going to occur and has occurred. The governments have accepted it - the prime minister of the United Kingdom and the prime minister of Ireland have both made statements in that regard, so I think that you have to move forward." But
AP notes there is still skepticism on the streets of Belfast. "Peace doesn't happen in the dark. It has to happen while everyone is watching," said 43-year-old Jerry Chisam.
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