IRA move on decommissioning welcomed

The Ulster Unionist Leader David Trimble has announced that he is to recommend to his party the reconstituting of the Northern Ireland executive after the IRA confirmed it had put weapons beyond use.

Speaking after his meeting with IICD chairman General de Chastelain, Mr Trimble confirmed that a meeting of his party executive to discuss the latest breakthrough would take place on Saturday.

On Tuesday evening Mr Trimble said: “We were told it would never happen. It was a day we were told we never see – IRA arms decommissioning. We have been in to speak with General de Chastelain and his colleagues tell us that they have personally witnessed the putting of weapons beyond use and done in a way that satisfies their statutory remit.”

Reacting to the news Sinn Féin president Mr Gerry Adams said: "This is a huge moment in the history of our island, in the relationships between our island and the island of Britain, in the history of physical force republicanism. Let's not fritter it away or reduce it."

The "unprecedented move" was welcomed in Dublin, London and Washington, but most importantly by Mr Trimble who said he would recommend to his ruling 110-member executive on Saturday that the UUP return to government with Sinn Féin. It is also thought that he may revoke the resignations of his three ministers on Thursday.

Speaking from Strasbourg SDLP leader John Hume said he hoped that it was time to “get down to real politics.” He said: “We need to start working for the social and economic development of our people, attacking our unemployment problems, developing our education and health issues – actually providing a real future for our young people, ending once and for all emigration as we head into the this century and new millennium.”

However, Gregory Campbell of the DUP said: “Are we expected to believe that yesterday they [the IRA] were villains and today they are heroes? I don’t think so. People will see through this and see it for what it is, but lets and wait and see what exactly has been agreed, what has been done and more importantly what is the other side of the equations, what is the demilitarisation part of this?”

David Ervine of the Progressive Unionist Party said the announcement was “seriously significant” but could not guarantee loyalist paramilitary groups would follow suit. (AMcE)