British Government Confident Of DeChastelain's Verification Role
10/27/04 12:49 EST

By the Irish American Information Service

The British government has total confidence in disarmament body chief General John de Chastelain's role in verifying any future move on IRA weapons, a British junior minister said today.

Northern Ireland Office Security Minister Ian Pearson told MPs that the British government had total confidence in the integrity of the general.

However, he acknowledged the concerns that unionists had about the transparency of any move by the IRA in the future to empty its arms dump.

Pearson was asked by Ulster Unionist MP Lady Sylvia Hermon: "How exactly is the Government going to address the problem of the deficit of confidence in the unionist community?"

She also asked if General de Chastelain was the best person to verify any weapons move by the IRA.

Pearson responded: "As a Government we have total confidence in the integrity of General de Chastelain."

But he claimed that there needed to be greater transparency in future arms moves.

"That is something that is under discussion," he said.

The British Government was today also due to receive a report from the Independent Monitoring Commission on paramilitary activity.

The four-member Commission, which monitors paramilitary activity and the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, was set up at the insistence of Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble.

Conservative MP Michael Mates asked Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy about the minimum requirement of the Government for any visible act of weapons decommissioning by the IRA.

However, Murphy wasn`t willing to be drawn into defining what was required but insisted that there had to be sufficient transparency to guarantee unionist and nationalist confidence in the disarmament process.

Sinn Féin has dismissed the latest 'Independent' Monitoring Commission's (IMC) report on paramilitary activity in the North.

The report, which was published today, claimed the IRA is showing "no signs" of winding down.

But Sinn Féin MLA for North Belfast Gerry Kelly said: "Reports produced by the IMC are based solely on material provided by the securocrats within the Special Branch, MI5 and British Military Intelligence. All of these organizations are opposed to the peace process and opposed to the Good Friday Agreement and previous reports have already been exposed as riddled with inaccuracies,'" he said.

"Given these facts the IMC has no credibility within the broad nationalist and republican community and the contents of this latest report are of little interest to it."

Ireland's Minister for Justice, McDowell, after the publication of the report that all forms of paramilitary activity must end if stable politics is to be established in the North.

"While there are positive aspects to the Commission's report, in terms of the scaling back of some paramilitary activity, the report nevertheless underlines the imperative to bring all forms of paramilitary activity to an end," he maintained.

"This is a central feature of the approach of both Governments in their efforts to assure a peaceful society and stable politics in Northern Ireland."

The report claimed that paramilitary gangs remained involved in the drugs trade, robberies and the black market.

Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy said he was committed to clamping down on organised crime, and vowed to tackle all criminal activity.

"If criminal proceedings cannot be brought, cases will be referred to the Assets Recovery Agency to retrieve the proceeds of crime, either through civil action or taxation," he said.

The IRA also appeared to have suspended action against people in republican areas it believed were guilty of anti-social behavior. The report also maintained that the IRA was linked to a major robbery in Dunmurry on the outskirts of Belfast in May and to smuggling and other criminal activity.

However, it said the IRA were said to be no longer criminally active in the Republic.

On the other hand, loyalists such as Ulster Defense Association and Ulster Volunteer Force were showing an increasing capacity for violence, with continued involvement in murders, feuds and punishment attacks, the report said.

The IMC said the Ulster Volunteer Force remained "an active and violent organization" that was linked to two of the four paramilitary murders since the end of February.

It was also involved in a feud with the Loyalist Volunteer Force and remained involved in organized crime, the IMC reported. The UVF was blamed for bomb attacks against nationalists and a series of violent racial attacks in Belfast, although these were not sanctioned by the organization's leadership.

"We also note that the senior UVF members have restated their commitment to the loyalist ceasefire statement of October 1994," the IMC said. 

"Nevertheless, we conclude that the UVF remains a ruthless organization retaining a capacity for more widespread violence and, as the feud with the LVF showed, if it judged the circumstances appropriate we believe that it would engage in it."

The UDA carried out a number of shootings and sectarian attacks, including one against three Catholic men in August. It was also linked with serious criminality and drug dealing. 

The "Real IRA" was also regarded as a serious threat - albeit one with limited capabilities. It was blamed for a series of letter bomb attacks on Policing Board members and a shooting at a Derry police station in September.

The dissident republican group, which is split into two factions, is understood to be involved in smuggling and is trying to increase its bomb-making capacities, the IMC reported. "We conclude that RIRA remains a considerable threat," the commission said. "We believe it will continue to be active, even if its capabilities do not always match its aspirations."

The INLA and the Continuity IRA were also said to be highly-involved in crime and potentially dangerous. The CIRA in particular was understood to be seeking to increase its membership and weapons capability.

"Paramilitary violence in the form of murder, shootings and assaults has considerably reduced in the past six months but remains at a disturbingly high level," the report concluded. 

"The proportionate reduction is greater on the part of republican groups. Most violence is attributable to loyalist groups."

A spokeswoman for the Taoiseach, Ahern, confirmed he would be discussing the contents of the IMC report with British Prime Minister Tony Blair on the margins of the EU meeting in Brussels today.

The report is the third produced by the IMC and the second dealing with paramilitary activity presented to the two governments.

Its members comprise former deputy director of the CIA Richard Kerr, ex-Metropolitan Police anti-terrorist chief John Grieve, retired Irish civil servant Joe Brosnan and ex-Stormont Assembly Speaker Lord Alderdice.

The IMC was formed last year at the insistence of Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble and was also given the task of monitoring how the British government is living up to its pledges to scale down security in Northern Ireland. 

The IRA has agreed to allow a Protestant and a Catholic churchman to witness the decommissioning of its weapons, according to media reports today.

It was reported that the IRA offer will be detailed in government papers to be handed separately to Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams and DUP leader Ian Paisley during meetings in Dublin and London tomorrow.

Making the IRA's acts of "putting weapons beyond use" more visible has been one of the major sticking points in the negotiations to restore a power-sharing government in Northern Ireland.

According to the BBC Northern Ireland's Spotlight program, sources say agreement on having churchmen as witnesses was reached during negotiations held since the Leeds Castle talks in September.

The Democratic Unionists and Sinn Féin have been involved in intensive - though indirect - talks as the main unionist and republican parties in Northern Ireland.

As an incentive to help bring about an agreement, the IRA has offered major acts of decommissioning, but the DUP's negotiators want more evidence than the word of Gen. John de Chastelain, the head of the independent arms decommissioning body.

The offer of allowing other witnesses to see it is a significant move by republicans - but it is still not clear whether it will be enough for the DUP.

However, it would only happen in the event of a comprehensive deal being reached on a new devolved government at Stormont.

It has been reported that there was no agreement yet who the two churchmen would be.

In recent weeks, the DUP has said progress has been made since the Leeds Castle talks and the agreement on church witnesses seems to confirm this.

The PSNI Chief Constable, Hugh Orde said the "visibility issue" surrounding decommissioning was a difficult one to square.

"It seems to me there is going to have to be something more than just General de Chastelain making a statement. I think there's going to have to be something more visible if people, if communities, are going to be convinced that this is a very real event."

Speaking about who might be chosen as witnesses, the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church, Ken Newell, told the program: "These have to be people who are trusted. These must be people whose word is their bond - people who are against any kind of exaggeration or hype because people today have a great scepticism against the whole spinning industry. They want people to speak the truth - to tell it as it is and talk straight."

Meanwhile, republicans warned tonight that any proposals to revive devolution must be rooted in the Good Friday Agreement. 

As the British and Irish governments prepared to present a blueprint for the way forward, frantic efforts on all sides continued behind the scenes.

The proposals will need the full backing of all parties if there is to be any chance of a breakthrough in the deadlock in the foreseeable future.

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams has warned that "the game is up". He said it was now up to Tony Blair, not Ian Paisley, to move the process forward, claiming unionists had had enough time to agree a mandate.

The Party`s Assembly Group leader Conor Murphy warned any proposals put forward tomorrow must be grounded in the fundamentals of the 1998 accord.

He said: "The reason we have not achieved a comprehensive deal is the DUP`s continued opposition to the fundamentals of the Good Friday Agreement. If there is going to be a deal then that deal can only be based on the framework provided by the Agreement. There can be no other way."

Murphy said if the proposals did not trigger a breakthrough it was vital that the two governments take further action to speed up the process of change.

A Downing Street spokesman would not comment on what was on the table but said its impact would be revealed soon enough.

"We have made progress with all parties in recent weeks in private," he said. "We will keep it that way for now although people won`t have long to wait for the outcome."

An SDLP source said they would be looking for commitment from the Democratic Unionists to the early devolution of policing and justice.

"Negotiations are at a very delicate stage," he said. "But we are looking to ensure that the Good Friday Agreement is upheld and that the DUP will not have veto powers over nationalist ministers."

A DUP spokesman refused to speculate on the nature of the proposals but said they awaited receipt of the document in London and would spend the next few days reflecting on its contents.

After the Leeds Castle talks in Kent, British Prime Minister Tony Blair claimed the IRA appeared to be ready to resolve the issues of disarmament and paramilitary activity which have stalled attempts to restore the power sharing executive.

But a deal on devolution and decommissioning has been frustrated by the refusal of the Rev Ian Paisley`s Democratic Unionists to agree a future model for power sharing.

The DUP has been accused of tactically long-fingering the process, delaying agreement until after next year`s local government elections forits own political gain.

All parties will have around a week to contemplate the deal on offer before either agreeing to its contents or rejecting it. The effective deadline for a deal is November 26 - the anniversary of the Assembly elections.

Irish premier Bertie Ahern has admitted that if the impasse is not broken in the coming weeks, the process will be left to drift well into 2006.

But he has expressed confidence that a decision could be imminent if all parties are willing co-operate. He said the disagreements preventing a deal between Sinn FÉIN and the DUP were so minor people would be amused.

All political parties will be presented with the long-awaited document tomorrow. The DUP will receive theirs in London while Sinn Féin will be in Dublin.

Both an SDLP delegation and Northern Ireland secretary Paul Murphy will also meet with Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern in Dublin tomorrow.

Sinn Féin Welcomes DUP - DeChastelain Meeting
11/27/04 17:04 EST

Sinn Féin has welcomed the DUP's decision to meet the head of the arms body to discuss the possibility of IRA disarmament.

DUP leader Ian Paisley will meet General John de Chastelain on Monday amid further talks to try to restore devolution to Northern Ireland.

The two governments want Sinn Féin and the DUP to have decided by Tuesday whether to sign up to a new power-sharing deal.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said this weekend will be a crucial one for the political process.

Sinn Féin chairman Mitchell McLaughlin was asked today if photographs of future IRA disarmament were a possibility. He said his party had no influence over the confidential discussions between the general and the IRA.

"We have no influence on that. Ian Paisley will come to understand that he has no influence over that. The two governments have no influence over that," he said.

"Any one of those groups are free to make suggestions but, at the end of the day, the deal, if there is a deal, will emerge as a result of John de Chastelain's work with the armed groups."

Meanwhile, the DUP's executive has backed Paisley as he enters the final stage of the current talks process.

It spent three hours on Friday examining the latest proposals from the British and Irish Governments. The DUP leader is expected to meet Tony Blair on Tuesday.

Friday's DUP meeting came at the end of a day when US president George W Bush offered his support to efforts to achieve a breakthrough in the political process.

Bush telephoned Paisley as Sinn Féin and the DUP were receiving the governments' responses to their queries over the British-Irish joint proposals.

Speaking on his ranch in Crawford, Texas, President Bush said he had sought to get Sinn Féin and the DUP "to the table to get a deal done to close the agreement they'd been working on for a while".

Bush said he would do "everything I can do to help keep the process moving forward". Blair also held further talks with Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams on Friday. Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern has said the governments would be in touch with the parties over the weekend or on Monday.

Meanwhile, more details have emerged on British-Irish proposals to deal with the demand for visible decommissioning.

Talks sources suggest that by the end of December, General de Chastelain could report that all IRA weapons have been "put beyond use".

Photographic proof of this would be held by the head of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning until March.

This would open the door to a shadow assembly at the start of January. There would then be a new power-sharing executive. Two churchmen - agreed by the DUP and republicans - would witness the acts of decommissioning.

It is not yet known how much of this will be agreed to by the parties, although the DUP is saying no deal will be made without photographs.

The two governments have said they are ready to publish their proposals if the parties do not sign up to a deal.

At the conclusion of intensive political talks at Leeds Castle in Kent in September, Blair and Ahern said the thorny issues of IRA disarmament and future paramilitary activity appeared to be resolved.

But, the two governments were unable to get the DUP to sign up to a deal over power-sharing after unionists and nationalists clashed over future devolved institutions.