Security Oracle News Archive

IRA Has Changed Radically - Report

Wed, October 04, 2006

Source: Ananova

The IRA has changed radically from the organisation it was three years ago, a report by Northern Ireland's ceasefire watchdog will claim.

The IRA has changed radically from the organisation it was three years ago, a report by Northern Ireland's ceasefire watchdog will claim.

The 12th report by the Independent Monitoring Commission is expected to reveal that the Provisionals have wound down some of their departments, including those responsible for bomb-making.

And while it will acknowledge the continued involvement of individual IRA members in crime, the Commission is expected to highlight the resolute line of the IRA leadership in discouraging criminal activity.

However, the report will stop short of making a definitive judgment on whether IRA members were responsible for the murder of Sinn Fein official Denis Donaldson in the Irish Republic in April.

The IMC's findings are seen as crucial in the run-up to next week's talks to restore power-sharing in Northern Ireland.

Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern hope the report will provide the right mood for the negotiations in St Andrews in Scotland and will help build unionist confidence in Sinn Fein's credentials as a future partner in a devolved government.

The Commission, whose report will also focus on the activities of loyalist paramilitaries and dissident republicans, is expected to show that the IRA has stopped recruiting members, directing those who want to join towards Sinn Fein.

It will also show that intelligence-gathering on security force members has stopped, training and the procurement of weapons has ended, and the organisation has resisted approaches from the community for it to punish anti-social elements.

The four-member panel will acknowledge the efforts of those in the Ulster Volunteer Force and the Ulster Defence Association to steer their loyalist organisations away from crime.

However, while it will encourage those efforts, the report will insist that loyalists have a considerable distance to travel before they emulate what the Provisional IRA has achieved in transforming its organisation.

Ananova