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IRA plea for arms raises few eyebrows

BELFAST: Reports that the IRA has requested personal firearms for protection against dissident members were met with some understanding on Friday from quarters demanding that the paramilitary disarms.

"I could live with that, provided that all the other weapons are decommissioned," said Andrew Mackay, the British opposition Conservative party's spokesman on Northern Ireland.

"It's my understanding that various public figures in Northern Ireland carry their own protection weapons for fairly obvious reasons and I wouldn't object to Sinn Fein/IRA doing the same," he went.

Similar remarks came from across the sectarian divide. "That's fair enough by us," said a spokesman from Northern Ireland's Progressive Unionist Party, which is close to Protestant paramilitaries.

The Irish Republican Army (IRA), whose political wing is Sinn Fein, issued a statement on Wednesday confirming it would continue talks with General John de Chastelain, head of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning.

Sources close to Chastelain indicated that he was aware of the risks posed by dissidents opposed to the Northern Ireland peace process to leading IRA members.

The essential part of disarmament talks is to ensure the handover of heavy weapons and explosives, the sources said.

But Protestant hardliners continue to cast doubt on the IRA's pledge to disarm, made last November as the Northern Ireland peace process finally edged out of deadlock after 18 months of wrangling over disarmament.

"There is no evidence that the IRA is going to be prepared to engage in verifiable or ongoing decommissioning, so this question of whether they retain arms after decommissioning is not going to arise," said Gregory Campbell of the hardline Democratic Unionist Party. AFP