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IRA may keep some guns for protection

LONDON: The IRA has won tacit approval from Britain and the Irish Republic for some guerrillas to keep weapons for personal protection after disarmament in Northern Ireland, the Times newspaper reported on Thursday.

British officials declined comment on the report, which came just hours after the Irish Republican Army backed the peace process in Northern Ireland but still shied away from a clear commitment to hand over its arsenal of guns and bombs.

The IRA did say however that it would carry on talking to an international body set up to oversee disarmament in the British province where mistrust runs high between the majority Protestants and minority Roman Catholics.

Northern Ireland's main Protestant political group, the Ulster Unionist Party, has threatened to pull out of a power-sharing government with Catholics if the IRA has not started to hand in weapons by February.

The Times, citing unidentified republican sources, said IRA leaders were believed to have presented the personal protection plan as a means of defending themselves from guerrillas opposed to the peace process.

"The proposal to allow scores of IRA volunteers to retain legal sidearms is certain to infuriate Unionists, but officials in London and Dublin are thought to recognise that it may be necessary," the newspaper said.

The Times said an IRA go-between was due to hold another round of talks with the international disarmament body, possibly as early as Friday.

The IRA said on Wednesday it was committed to the search for peace in Northern Ireland but accused British intelligence services of undermining progress.

"The leadership of the IRA will continue to play a positive role in a genuine effort to realise a just and lasting peace," the guerrilla group said in a statement to be published in An Phoblacht, the newspaper of its political ally Sinn Fein.

The IRA, which has observed a ceasefire since 1997 in its fight against British rule, warned of a "negative impact" on the peace process if Britain did not play its part in demilitarising the province.

The chances of a durable peace were being damaged by covert surveillance operations by British intelligence against republicans and efforts by Northern Ireland's police force to recruit informers, the IRA said.

"It remains our view that the ending of British government interference in Irish affairs offers the only basis for the establishment of a just and lasting peace in Ireland," it said.

Last month Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said a microphone, wiring and transmitter had been found in a car used by his party during peace talks with rival Protestant politicians.

Adams said he thought the device had been planted by British intelligence agents.

The British government has been scaling down its military presence in Northern Ireland in line with ceasefires by both the IRA and pro-British Protestant guerrilla groups.

Some 15,000 British troops are in Northern Ireland, down from around 17,000 before the IRA ceasefire. At the height of the province's sectarian conflict in the early 1970s, there were about 30,000 troops.

After three decades of bloodshed in which 3,600 people were killed, Northern Ireland moved closer to peace in December with the formation of a devolved government in which Protestant pro-British Unionists share power for the first time with Sinn Fein republicans seeking a united Ireland.-Reuters