N Ireland paramilitaries disarm

9 Feb 2010, 6:15 am   -   Source: AAP
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Two Irish paramilitary groups say they have disarmed, in a move hailed as helping close "the last chapter" of conflict in Northern Ireland.

Two Irish paramilitary groups say they have disarmed, in a move hailed as helping close "the last chapter" of conflict in Northern Ireland.

The declarations by the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) and the Official IRA (Irish Republican Army) follow a political breakthrough in the long-troubled British province last week.

The INLA, a splinter group of the Provisional IRA, says it has disposed of its arms in recent weeks through the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD), which oversees the disarmament process.

"We make no apology for our part in the conflict," Martin McMonagle, a spokesman for the group which killed dozens during the Troubles, said on Monday, adding the group would now work to promote political progress.

"We believe that conditions have now changed in such a way that other options are open to revolutionaries in order to pursue and ultimately achieve our objectives," he said.

A few hours later the Official IRA, a relatively small organisation most active in the 1970s, said it had destroyed its guns.

The timing of the announcements is believed to be linked to the fact that legislation which allows illegal groups to decommission weapons without fear of prosecution runs out on Tuesday.

But they also came after the resolution last week of a long-running row between the parties that share power in Belfast, the pro-London Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the Republican Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA.

DUP leader and First Minister Peter Robinson struck an accord on Thursday last week with Sinn Fein to transfer police and justice powers from London to Belfast in April, the last piece in a complex devolution jigsaw.

More than 3,500 people were killed in Northern Ireland during three decades known as The Troubles, pitting communities supporting and opposing British rule of the province against each other in a bloody campaign of bombings and shootings.

Irish Justice Minister Dermot Ahern said decommissioning by the INLA and others "are further positive developments as we look to finally close the last chapter of the conflict and ensure a peaceful future" for Northern Ireland.

Sinn Fein spokesman Gerry Kelly welcomed the announcement and said there was "no support for or appetite for armed actions" within the republican community.

"Other small militarist factions, both republican and loyalist, who are opposed to the peace process, need now also to reflect on their position given the political realities of 2010 and end their futile armed actions," he said.

DUP spokesman Gregory Campbell said the announcement was long overdue.

"All too often when moves like this occur, there is a tendency to forget what was carried out by these groups. All of them should decommission their weapons, none of them should have been armed and able to murder in the first instance."

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