IRA To End Armed Campaign & British Army Starts Closing Bases in Responce

[FGH_Recce_DJ]

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (CP) - The Irish Republican Army announced Thursday it is renouncing violence as a political weapon and resuming disarmament in a dramatic declaration designed to revive Northern Ireland's peace process.

The IRA said all of its clandestine units had been ordered to place their weapons in arms dumps and cease all activities, effective at 4 p.m. (11 a.m. EDT), but would not formally disband.

"The leadership has formally ordered an end to the armed campaign," the IRA said in a major advance from its opened-ended truce in place since 1997.

"All volunteers have been instructed to assist the development of purely political and democratic programs through exclusively peaceful means. Volunteers must not engage in any other activities whatsoever," the IRA command said in remarks addressed to the group's approximately 500 to 1,000 members.

The IRA statement said John de Chastelain, a retired Canadian general who since 1997 has been trying to persuade the IRA and other illegal groups to disarm, would be invited to decommission more hidden weapons bunkers soon. It said a Roman Catholic priest and Protestant minister would be invited to witness the scrapping of weapons.

In a statement issued by the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning, de Chastelain said the commission "takes note of the IRA statement and has re-engaged with the representative with a view to completing its mandate to decommission IRA arms."

A commission spokesman said de Chastelain was not available for further comment.

The IRA appealed to Britain and Northern Ireland's Protestant majority to accept its new position as sufficient to renew negotiations on power-sharing, the core goal of the 1998 peace accord for this British territory.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Irish counterpart, Bertie Ahern, warmly praised the IRA's announcement.

"I welcome the recognition that the only route to political change lies in exclusively peaceful and democratic means," Blair said at his office in London. "This is a step of unparalleled magnitude in the recent history of Northern Ireland."

Ahern, who has closely worked with Blair since 1997 to broker compromise in the British territory, said the statement heralded "the end of the IRA as a paramilitary organization."

"If the IRA's words are borne out by verified actions, it will be a momentous and historic development," Ahern said.

Canada was also quick to welcome the IRA statement.

"Canada has long supported the efforts of all parties to bring peace and reconciliation to the people of Northern Ireland," said Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew Pettigrew.

He called the decision an unprecedented opportunity to advance the peace process.

"We are pleased to add our voice of support to the already strong endorsements given by the governments of the United Kingdom and Ireland to today's commitment by the IRA," Pettigrew added.

But Protestant leaders in Northern Ireland, deeply suspicious of IRA motives, stressed they would wait several months to test whether the IRA's words proved true. They noted the IRA was supposed to have disarmed fully by mid-2000 as part of the Good Friday accord, but did not start the process until late 2001 and stopped in 2003.

Ian Paisley, whose hardline Democratic Unionist party represents most Protestants, said IRA commanders "have failed to explicitly declare an end to their multimillion-pound criminal activity, and they have failed to provide the level of transparency that will be necessary to truly build confidence that the guns have gone in their entirety."

Security experts say the IRA retains much of its arsenal hidden in underground bunkers in the neighbouring Republic of Ireland. The IRA received more than 130 tonnes of armaments from Libya in the mid-1980s, and police say the group continues to smuggle modern weaponry into the country.

All sides say they remain committed to resurrecting a joint Catholic-Protestant administration that would replace Britain as the primary government authority in Northern Ireland. But Protestants insist they won't work again with Sinn Fein, the IRA-linked party, until the IRA disappears as a threat to stability.

A four-party coalition led by Protestant and Catholic moderates gained power in 1999, but it fell apart in 2002 amid chronic arguments about IRA activities and arms.

Resurrecting power-sharing became more difficult in 2003 once voters - polarized by the diplomatic deadlock - shifted support to the opposite extremes of opinion: Gerry Adams' Sinn Fein on the Irish Catholic side and Paisley's Democratic Unionists on the British Protestant side.

A potential power-sharing pact between this unlikely couple fell apart in December when the IRA refused Protestant demands for disarmament to be recorded for public consumption. The IRA also rejected demands, chiefly levelled by the Irish government and Catholic moderates, for the IRA to renounce crime and accept the legitimacy of Northern Ireland's police force.

The British and Irish governments united behind the position that power-sharing couldn't be restored unless the IRA fully disarmed and went out of business - disbanding in practice if not in name.

Erin Go Bragh!!!!!!!

 

[rcr]

Though many will meet the IRA's announcement with skepticism, I respect the call to lay down arms.  Three decades of IRA violence and backlash is long enough.  All parties are to blame, but all parties have had enough.  It's time for Northern Ireland to grow and prosper as Irish, instead of folding in two and fighting themselves and the British. 

 

[Spr.Earl]

Though many will meet the IRA's announcement with skepticism, I respect the call to lay down arms.   Three decades of IRA violence and backlash is long enough.   All parties are to blame, but all parties have had enough.   It's time for Northern Ireland to grow and prosper as Irish, instead of folding in two and fighting themselves and the British.  

Yes Archer I do except it with some reservations but a very good post non the least and so true.

 

[Edward Campbell]

I will refrain from giving my views on the IRA and the Protestant extremists.  If the IRA has, indeed, surrendered then that is a good thing.  Sinn Fein is, of course, welcome to pursue political change politically.  If not then it's back to killing the terrorists, one by one, preferably while their eyes are wide open and their wives and children are watching â “ because there is not even the tiniest bit of difference between each and every single IRA man and each and every IRA supporters and each and every single al Qaeda man and each and every Islamic terror supporter; they are all, without exception, the enemy.

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

All this does is take the attention off their real goal,...to keep control of the protection, drug and other assorted "rackets".
IRA has evolved into nothing but a world class organized crime ring....

 

[paracowboy]

All this does is take the attention off their real goal,...to keep control of the protection, drug and other assorted "rackets".
IRA has evolved into nothing but a world class organized crime ring....

bingo. This is why they're "dis-arming". Because they have lost the support of the populace. No fish to swim among.

 

[Dragoon19]

Call me a cynic but as one who has done 3 tours in NI I find this hard to believe these guys have been indoctrinated since birth and I find it hard to believe that they can go cold turkey that quickly.

This has been going on for over three hundred years and I am sure it is going to last a lot longer. I would like nothing better than to see all my former Bros pull out of NI, but  there is no trust on EITHER side so I for as much as I would like to see it, I will adopt the wait and see stance.

Most of the IRA now are just common crooks and again I cannot see them giving up there only source of income, and  god forbid that they get areal job.

Any way  just my 2 cents worth

 

[FGH_Recce_DJ]

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) - The British army began closing or demolishing military installations in the Irish Republican Army's rural heartland Friday in a rapid response to the IRA's declaration to renounce violence and disarm.

Soldiers started to dismantle or withdraw from three positions in South Armagh, a rebellious borderland nicknamed "bandit country," where soldiers still travel by helicopter because of the risk of IRA dissidents' roadside bombs.

The move came a day after IRA commanders promised to disarm fully, and directed their units to dump their weapons and use "exclusively peaceful means" from now on.

The breakthrough was the product of a two-year diplomatic showdown between the IRA and its allied Sinn Fein party on one side, and the British, Irish and U.S. governments, which demanded the IRA's full disarmament and disbanding.

Britain, which also parolled an IRA mass murderer Wednesday as part of the emerging new agreement, agreed to close down an army base in the South Armagh village of Forkhill; a hilltop tower near Camlough Mountain with commanding views of surrounding hamlets and roads, and a tall tower in Newtownhamilton, the only South Armagh village with a substantial Protestant minority.

Lt.-Gen. Sir Reddy Watt, who commands the British army's 12,000-member force in Northern Ireland, confirmed the military cuts. Watt said he and Chief Const. Hugh Orde, commander of the Northern Ireland police, "have decided that a further reduction in security profile is possible."

The British army has already withdrawn more than 7,000 soldiers and closed more than three dozen installations since 1998, but paused the gradual process in recent months to await the IRA's next move.

In April 2003, Prime Minister Tony Blair specified that if the threat from the IRA and dissident groups ended conclusively, Britain's permanent peacetime garrison in Northern Ireland would fall to 5,000 troops operating from 14 bases across this territory of 1.7 million people.

In Thursday's statement, the IRA said its representative would reopen talks immediately with John de Chastelain, a retired Canadian general who since 1997 has been trying to disarm the IRA and Northern Ireland's myriad other outlawed gangs.

The IRA said it hoped to complete the disposal of its weapon stockpiles "as quickly as possible" and would allow Catholic and Protestant clergy to witness the disarmament work. The IRA surrendered unknown amounts of arms in 2001, 2002 and 2003 amid total secrecy, fuelling Protestants' suspicions they were being conned.

And Protestant politicians condemned the British authorities' rapid reward for the IRA words, noting that the police still aren't able to operate without military backup in South Armagh.

But Conor Murphy, a former IRA member who is Sinn Fein's member of the British Parliament for South Armagh, said its residents "have lived with the negative effects of military occupation for too long." He said Friday's military retreat "must be built upon in the days and weeks ahead."

The British, Irish and American governments have stressed that the central goal of Northern Ireland's Good Friday peace accord of 1998 - a stable Catholic-Protestant administration - cannot be achieved unless the IRA disappears as a threat to Northern Ireland stability.


All three governments have grown increasingly impatient with the Sinn Fein-IRA movement since 2002, when a moderate-led coalition collapsed amid chronic arguments over IRA activities and weaponry. Sinn Fein had two of 12 posts in that coalition, but would be the major Catholic part of any future coalition because of its growing vote.

The IRA had been observing a ceasefire since 1997 but reserved the right to abandon the truce, which also contained many loopholes for violent activity. Thursday's statement changed that, as IRA commanders "formally ordered an end to the armed campaign" and instructed members to avoid all violent activities.

I myself think this is jumping the gun, for all we know the IRA could just be saying this to make the British government lower there guard. Plus just because Sinn Fein says to stop all activities, i'm sure alot of splinter groups or cells are using this as a time to re organise there people and to break away from the ruling Sinn Fein, once a radical always a radical.

 

[Blackhorse7]

Never thought I would see the day... it will be interesting to see how this pans out.

 

[redleafjumper]

Yeah, I was also pretty surprised when the Soviet Union collapsed. After that happened, it seemed to me that anything is possible; it would be nice if the IRA were to stop the fighting.  The problem is that like most organizations it is composed of factions and there are certainly some that will keep right on going, and sadly, t doesn't take many to cause problems.

It is an interesting time in which we live.