Reports obtained from:
(1) Irish Republican News, (2) The Blanket, (3) Troops Out Movement
Monday, 26 September, 2005
Saturday, 24 September, 2005
IRA completes decommissioning
By Irish Republican News
The Provisional IRA today confirmed that all its arms have been put beyond use, a statement that was verified by the head of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD).
Speaking at a press conference near Belfast earlier this afternoon, General John de Chastelain said it was an "important milestone" for Ireland and said he hoped the move would prompt other groups to make a similar move. He said the arms had been inventoried and he believed all of the IRA's arsenal had now been decommissioned.
The IRA issued a short statement after the press conference that read: "The leadership of Oglaigh na h- Eireann announced on July 28 that we had authorised our representative to engage with the IICD to complete the process to verifiably put arms beyond use.
"The IRA leadership can now confirm that the process of putting our arms verifiably beyond use has been completed."
Gen de Chastelain this afternoon revealed that members of his arms commission had engaged with the IRA representative over the past number of weeks.
"We have now reported to British and Irish governments that 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. We have also made an inventory of them.
"In September 2004 the commission was provided with estimates of the number and quantity of arms held by the IRA. These estimates were produced by the security forces in both jurisdictions and were in agreement. Our new inventory is consistent with these estimates and we are satisfied that the arms decommissioned represent the totality of the IRA's arsenal."
The disarmament was verified by former Methodist president the Rev Harold Good and Redemptorist priest Fr Alex Reid, who acted as a go-between in the lead-up to the 1994 IRA ceasefire.
Rev Good told the press conference that witnessing the process on a minute-by-minute basis gave them clear and incontrovertible evidence "that beyond any shadow of doubt the arms of the IRA have now been decommissioned".
He said: "We have spent many long days watching the meticulous and painstaking way in which General de Chastelain went about his task of decommissioning huge amounts of explosives, arms and ammunition."
The Reverend said he was utterly certain about the accuracy of General de Chastelain's report.
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams this evening called the decommissioning of IRA weapons a "defining moment in the peace process".
Mr Adams said: "We now have an opportunity to build a future democratically and politically provided all of us put our shoulders to the wheel."
Speaking on RTE radio, he said: "We have a huge responsibility to make sure no-one dies, or is injured or imprisoned for any incident arising out of political conflict." But he warned: "There was a huge onus on the two governments to deliver on their commitments, and to create the conditions where unionism faces up to its responsibilities".
Sinn Fein chief negotiator Martin McGuinness hailed the significance of IRA decommissioning.
The Mid Ulster MP said: "This is a momentous day for peace. "It is, in my view, a tremendous advance, a historic advance, for all the people of Ireland.
"It is the turning of the final page in the whole controversy over IRA arms.
"It has always been used by unionists as an excuse but now that excuse has effectively been taken away.
"For all of us there is a tremendous, golden opportunity to move forward."
Mr McGuinness said: "I hope people will realise the importance of what has happened and recognise that all of this was done by people who were part of a military organisation, who accepted Gerry Adams's appeal that the way forward now is by purely political means."
However, DUP leader Ian Paisley said today he was not convinced of the move because there was no "transparent verification".
"We do not know how many guns, the amount of ammunition and explosives that were decommissioned, nor were we told how the decomissioning was carried out," he told a Belfast press conference this afternoon.
"This afternoon the people of northern Ireland watched a programme which illustrates more than ever the duplicity and dishonesty of the two governments and the IRA," Mr Paisley said.
Mr Paisley said the announcement by General de Chastelain did not meet the requirements of proof the unionist people demanded.
The promises of British Prime Minister Tony Blair that decommissioning would be transparent and verifiable had been broken, he said.
Mr Paisley and his party are crucial to any progress with the political process and he made it clear he was unimpressed with the announcement as a means of kick- starting progress.
"Instead of openness there was the cunning tactics of a cover up, the complete failure from general John de Chastelain to deal with the vital numbers of decommissioning.
He claimed the independent witnesses were "appointed by the IRA".
And he said not one iota of evidence had been given to verify that what the IRA had told the IICD was accurate. Deputy leader Peter Robinson said the party was "underwhelmed" by today's events.
The Irish Prime Minister, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, described the decommissioning of IRA weapons as a "landmark development" in the peace process.
Speaking at a press conference in Dublin, Bertie Ahern said today's announcement by the De Chastelain decommissioning body that the IRA had disposed of all of its arms was of "real historic significance".
Mr Ahern told reporters: "The gun of the IRA has been taken out of Irish politics".
He said: "The weapons of the IRA are gone. And they are gone in a manner which has been witnessed and verified."
But the Taoiseach said "this doesn't end the peace process, it is a phase."
Mr Ahern said the next phase was to try to implement the Good Friday Agreement and set up a working Assembly and North-South bodies.
He said this could be done in the "months ahead".
Gerry Adams Statement
By Irish Republican News
The following is the text of a speech by Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams today in response to today's announcement.
I consider this afternoon's announcements to be a very full and positive response to the appeal that I made in April.
At that time I called upon the IRA to pursue their goals by purely peaceful and democratic means.
This was in keeping with the position outlined by Sinn Féin going back over many years.
I want to commend the leadership of the IRA for moving so decisively.
I know that today's announcement will be difficult for many republicans. I saw that myself as we watched the press conference of the IICD and the two independent witnesses.
This was a bold and brave leap. But all us need to think beyond it. We need to think beyond the moment. It is not the leap itself but the place that it takes us all that is important. For this reason the IRA's courageous decision was the right thing to do.
Both governments now need to be focused, decisive and creative. They need to implement the Good Friday Agreement as they have promised to do. There must be progress on equality, policing, human rights, people on the run and victims. There must also be progress on other issues, including prisoners and Northern representation in the Oireachtas.
There must be a proper peace dividend to tackle inequality, discrimination, deprivation and sectarianism wherever it exists.
The political institutions must be restored.
I understand and appreciate that unionists need space to absorb what all this means. I would ask them to reflect upon the potential which is now created, and to see it as an opportunity.
Some unionists may fear that this is a tactical maneuver, or an attempt to trap them. It is not.
Some unionists have expressed fears about a Plan B. There is no Plan B. There is no secret agenda.
Unionists say they do not trust republicans. But they do need to trust themselves.
The IRA's decision to formally end its armed campaign and today's announcements are genuine initiatives to revive the peace process by conclusively resolving the concerns of unionists.
Issues relating to the IRA, which were presented as difficulties for unionists, have now been definitively dealt with.
There are those who will try to dismiss or to minimise what has been announced today. We are prepared to meet those people to discuss their concerns.
Our leadership will also be seeking meetings with political, church, business and civic interests to build on the progress of today's events and to discuss all these urgent and important issues.
I would appeal therefore to political leaders to respond carefully. The words of some in the past have fueled sectarian violence against Catholics and this has been a particularly difficult summer. There were serious attempts to provoke a reaction from nationalists and republicans. There may well be other attempts in the time ahead so I call upon people to show the calm and discipline that was evident over the summer months and particularly in recent times.
This initiative has opened up a new phase in Irish political life. This is not just about the peace process and conflict resolution, though that is vitally important. It is bigger than the question of arms.
It is about the future of this island, the type of country that we want to live in, the sort of society that we desire for future generations as well as this generation.
Sinn Féin is proud of our republican values. Our strategy is to bring about Irish unity and independence. And we will campaign and argue for this as we expect unionists to argue for their political vision.
But in the interest of our shared constituencies we are prepared to work with them in the political institutions to deal with the outstanding issues of the peace process and the social and economic needs that face people at this time. One of the most critical issues facing us at this time is the pressing need to tackle sectarianism.
The context for this is the Good Friday Agreement.
We are not naive about the hard work and the difficulties which have yet to be overcome. But a new dynamic has been created. Republicans face into this with confidence. We appeal to unionists and others to join with us. To leave the past behind and to build a shared and peaceful future for all our people.
Feature: Decontamination
By Dr John Coulter for the Blanket
The DUP has demanded a 'decontamination' period after the IRA disarms before it will share power with Sinn Fein. Nationalists may instead demand a decontamination period from the DUP, given Paisleyism's past links with unionist paramilitary groups.
The Paisleyite movement needs to be extra vigilant when it comes to demanding a so-called decontamination period from republicans concerning paramilitary activity as a few embarrassing skeletons could fall out of the political cupboard.
It might be better for diehard Paisleyite fundamentalists to keep quiet in case republicans begin quoting the Bible back at them - especially the New Testament text of St Matthew's Gospel Chapter 7 and verse 5: "Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote of thy brother's eye."
In practical terms, the nationalist community wants to hear Paisleyite fundamentalists give a cast-iron guarantee there will be no more Ulster Protestant Volunteers, Ulster Third Force, or Ulster Resistance Movement.
True, the DUP has been to the fore in condemning the sectarian violence against Catholic homes, schools and chapels in Ian Paisley's own political stomping ground of North Antrim. The DUP has also condemned the violence which has erupted as part of the present Ulster Volunteer Force/Loyalist Volunteer Force feud.
However, the bitter medicine which the DUP must swallow is it cannot demand a decontamination period from republicans if it is not first prepared to renounce past Paisleyite links with shadowy loyalist paramilitary organisations. Of course, the DUP will be quick to hammer any allegations it can be compared to Sinn Fein, which acts as the political wing of the IRA.
DUP politicians will be equally quick on the draw to assert the party is not the political front for any loyalist terror squad or paramilitary group. In this respect, the Paisleyites would do well to remember more words from Jesus in Matthew 7, this time in verse 2: "For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again."
Younger Paisleyite hotheads may need to be reminded of a group known as the Ulster Constitutional Defence Committee established in 1966 under the chairmanship of Ian Paisley. The Committee was formed the same year as Shankill Road loyalists revamped Lord Edward Carson's original Ulster Volunteer Force as a sectarian killing squad.
However, the UCDC was closely linked to another loyalist extremist group, the Ulster Protestant Volunteers. Indeed, in June 1966, Paisley in a speech in Holywood, Co Down, emphasised the UCDC had absolutely no connection with the UVF, which had just been proscribed.
In spite of this public denial, there were allegations the UVF and UPV enjoyed a close working relationship. The UPV was always equally closely associated with Paisley's UCDC, and UPV members accompanied most of Paisley's parades during the early civil rights period in the late 1960s a few years before he formed the DUP.
The UPV members were regarded as staunch supporters of Paisleyism. Organised in local divisions, the UPV styled itself as "a united Society of Protestant patriots, pledged by all lawful methods to uphold and maintain the constitution of Northern Ireland so long as the United Kingdom maintains a Protestant monarchy and the terms of the Revolution settlement".
The UPV tended to operate as a paramilitary escort for UCDC-organised parades in much the same way as another loyalist paramilitary group, the Vanguard Service Corps - later the Ulster Volunteer Service Corps - provided escorts for speakers from the Hard Right Vanguard Unionist movement in the early 1970s.
These groups should not be confused with another loyalist vigilante organisation established in 1977 with the support of the United Unionist Action Council and known as the Ulster Service Corps.
In the spring of '77, it mounted occasional road blocks in South Derry, Armagh and Tyrone, claiming to have some liaison with RUC and Ulster Defence Regiment members, although this was denied by the authorities.
Claiming to have a membership of about 500, this USC's activities included observation of alleged IRA 'safe houses'. Most of its original members were believed to have served with the RUC's B Specials, which were disbanded in 1970.
COLLUSION
However, it was the emergence and existence of groups such as the Ulster Service Corps which fuelled the collusion allegations in the nationalist community between loyalist extremists and the security forces.
Likewise, nationalists will also remember the late night parades of the Third Force, a DUP-sponsored vigilante organisation established in late 1981. It made appearances at several rallies addressed by Paisley and claimed its existence reduced the number of murders of Protestants in border areas.
The formation of the Third Force had been preceded by a show of strength in the Antrim hills at which around 500 Paisley supporters waved their firearms certificates to assembled journalists. Whilst branded as a stunt for the May 1981 local government elections, the incident nevertheless raised the issue of the number of legal guns held by Northern Protestants.
It was organised on a county basis and a strength of 15,000 to 20,000 was mentioned, however, its launch was accompanied by warnings from the authorities that private armies would not be tolerated. The Third Force largely disappeared after the formation of the 1982 Northern Assembly.
More sinister developments were to be orchestrated by the Paisleyites in November 1986 when the Ulster Resistance movement - famous for its red berets - was launched at an invitation-only rally in Belfast's Ulster Hall. The event was attended by Paisley and his deputy Peter Robinson. At one time, the Resistance was said to have comprised nine battalions.
However, the DUP was left with massive political egg on its face following a major arms find in Co Armagh in November 1988 which included weapons similar to those seized earlier from the UDA at Portadown and the UVF in Belfast. It has prompted much speculation as to the location of the Paisley-supporting Resistance arms cache.
DUP embarrassment was deepened with the arrest of a former DUP council candidate which brought the Resistance and its DUP links under even closer scrutiny. The Paisleyite knee- jerk reaction was a statement saying party associations and contacts had been ended with the Resistance.
But there were further 'red faces' for the DUP when three men were arrested in France under suspicion they were seeking to obtain guns from South Africa for the Resistance in return for selling missile technology.
It is somewhat ironic that hardline unionists are calling for the republican Colombia Three to be returned for trial, yet loyalists mounted a campaign calling the release of the Resistance-linked Paris Three. In 1991, Ulster Resistance was mentioned as one of the organisations, along with the UVF and UFF, in the Combined Loyalist Military Command which announced the loyalist ceasefire in October 1994.
All this loyalist paramilitary 'contamination' seems to have been forgotten by the modern DUP calling vehemently for the 'decontamination' of the republican movement.
Its no use pumping out the empty rhetoric that the UPV, Third Force, and the Resistance are now defunct. What we need is a definitive statement from the Paisley camp that these organisations have 'dumped arms' and any arsenals - no matter how old - will be verifably decommissioned.
Given this clear historical link between Paisleyism as a unionist ideology and organisation, and loyalist paramilitaries, nationalism and republicanism could justly state the time has now come for the DUP to be put into political quarantine and face its own decontamination period.
Are we back to square one?
Troops Out Movement News.
By Seán Mac Conmara
DUP party leader Ian Paisley played his ace card when he prevented a breakthrough deal on political progress with his November 2004 demand that the IRA must be forced to wear 'sackcloth and ashes'. A week later he added another demand: photographic evidence of IRA decommissioning.
He must have breathed a huge sigh of relief when the IRA refused to be humiliated and the Leeds Castle talks eventually ended without reaching an agreement on the restoration of the power-sharing institutions.
Less than ten months later, he is repeating the same old mantra - he must have photographic evidence. Are we back to square one? - Not at all.
Events over the past few months must be a living nightmare for the DUP. On April 6th they listened as Gerry Adams publicly appealed to the IRA to continue the struggle for a united Ireland through purely political and democratic means.
On July 28th they listened to Seánna Walsh read a statement, issued by Óglaigh na hÉireann, formally ordering an end to the armed campaign and ordering all IRA units to dump arms.
The DUP was dumbfounded.
Coming under unwelcome and increasing pressure from the British, Irish and American governments, Ian Paisley resorted to what he does best when democracy knocks intrusively at his door: implied threats of violence. “This could be the spark that kindles a fire there will be no putting out”, he thundered after the exit route of an Orange Order march was moved all of 125 yards closer to its terminus. Unionists of all ilk's took Paisley's prophesy on board. On September 10th Belfast erupted in explosions and flames ignited by unionist sectarian defiance of potential equality and democratic advancement.
Are we back to square one? Not at all.
Events over the past few weeks must be a living nightmare for the DUP. London, Dublin and Washington have surely seen through the attempt by unionist leaders, their paramilitaries and their collaborators in the Orange Order to put a halt to progress towards equality, democratic advancement and the restoration of devolved government.
The three governments are clearly well aware that the leaders of unionism carefully conceived, then planned and put into action, a strategy that they believed would place unbearable pressure on the republican movement. That strategy was to bring the IRA back onto the streets on September 10th. And if the IRA's discipline held fast and it did not take to the streets to defend nationalist areas from attack, then the leaders of unionism would sit back and witness the nationalist community turn against the IRA (and therefore the Sinn Féin strategy) for failing to defend them.
But the IRA didn't take to the streets - and the nationalist community didn't turn against them. What went wrong with the unionists' strategy?
Simple. They under-estimated the will of the nationalist community to achieve progress towards equality, democratic advancement and the restoration of devolved government. So, defiant to the end, Ian Paisley Jnr said in a speech last Thursday: "The government, Dublin and Washington must be left with a clear and certain understanding that unionism is resolved to resist having a government made up of bombers, murderers, gangsters, bank robbers or fugitives", adding: "Lets face up to it; there is no appetite for a devolved government with Sinn Fein", and: "We will live with direct rule".
Are we back to square one? - Not at all.
Events over the past few days must be a living nightmare for the DUP. The IRA statement on decommissioning is imminent. All the talk is positive. Even today, the 26 county Justice Minister Michael McDowell conceded he had seen nothing in the last few months which showed the IRA was not living up to its July 28th statement that the military campaign was over. Obviously under pressure from a direct question, he was forced to admit: "I have seen nothing in the last two months which would convince me that they are other than intent on delivering on their statement." Finishing with, for him, an agonising: "If you are asking me in the interim do I see any disturbing signs they are being two faced on this issue, the answer is I don't."
Are we back to square one? Not at all.
The DUP have played all their cards, including their ace, and they are now left with two jokers.
Father and son.
The sooner the DUP shuffle their pack, the sooner all the people in the north will get a fair deal.
Troops Out MovementTroops Out Movement – Campaigning for British Withdrawal from Ireland