Originally published by the Voice of America (www.voanews.com).
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Commission Says IRA Totally Disarmed
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(http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=F24768:3919ACA

Announcement could be a significant step toward reviving stalled peace
agreement  An international commission says the Irish Republican Army
has fully disarmed, in what could be a significant step toward
reviving a stalled peace agreement.







General John de ChastelainThe chief of the commission that oversaw IRA
disarmament, retired Canadian General John de Chastelain made the
announcement at a Belfast news conference.

"We have now reported to the 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," he said.

He said the arsenal included ammunition, rifles, machine guns,
mortars, missiles, handguns, and explosives.

The weaponry has been made "permanently inaccessible or permanently
unusable," he said.

Two clergymen, one Catholic and one Protestant, witnessed the
disarmament process, which is referred to in Northern Ireland as
decommissioning.

The Protestant minister, Reverend Harold Good of the Methodist Church
of Ireland, confirmed they had witnessed the destruction of a large
IRA arsenal.

"At the end of the process, it demonstrated to us, and it would have
demonstrated to anyone who might have been with us, that beyond any
shadow of doubt the arms of the IRA have now been decommissioned," he
said.







Irish Republican Army mural in West Belfast, Northern Ireland Under
questioning from reporters, General de Chastelain conceded the IRA
could still be hiding some weapons, but he says what he saw destroyed
was consistent with estimates from the British and Irish governments
of what the IRA possessed.

The general said the next step for his commission is to get
pro-British loyalist militias to disarm also, though he said there had
been no contact with them in some time.

"I hope the loyalist paramilitary groups will agree to decommission,"
he said. "That can be the end of the use of the gun in Irish politics,
or at least by the major groups that have been involved so far and
those that are still active presumeably can be dealt with by the
security forces and that people get back to politics, which is what
this is all about."

In London, Prime Minister Tony Blair issued a statement hailing the de
Chastelain report as an important development in the peace process,
while recalling the pain of the thousands killed and wounded in IRA
violence over the past 35 years.

There was no immediate reaction from Northern Ireland's Protestant
political leaders, though they have been clearly angered over the
IRA's long resistance to disarmament, as called for by a 1998 peace
accord.

The senior Protestant leader, Reverend Ian Paisley, had demanded
photos of the IRA disarmament, but General de Chastelain says none
were taken.

 


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