Timeframe for decommissioning

Ulster Unionists have sanctioned Sinn Fein over the issue of IRA guns

by BBC NI's chief security correspondent Brian Rowan

On the morning of December 18 1998, the Canadian General John de Chastelain stood in a workshop at the headquarters of his decommissioning body in Belfast, and watched the sparks fly as grinders cut through a number of weapons handed in by the Loyalist Volunteer Force.

At last, there was a start to decommissioning and the de Chastelain cupboard was no longer bare.

But almost two years on, sparks of a different kind are flying.

There has been no decommissioning since - loyalist or republican - and David Trimble's Ulster Unionist Party has moved to sanction Sinn Fein.

Its two ministers in the Northern Ireland Executive - Martin McGuinness and Bairbre de Brun - are being prevented from attending meetings of the North-South Ministerial Council.

Unionists want more action from the International Decommissioning Body, including monthly reports on progress.

Gen de Chastelain heads the arms decommissioning body

"I think there is very much a role for de Chastelain, although his role will run out in June," says Michael McGimpsey, a senior unionist and member of the power-sharing executive.

June is the target date set by the government for implementation of all aspects of the Good Friday Agreement.

De Chastelain's role, according to McGimpsey, "will be to put arms completely and verifiably beyond use or to declare that he hasn't done so and the reasons why he hasn't done so".

But what if we get to next June and the IRA hasn't moved, should there be any further extension of the de Chastelain mandate?

McGimpsey is clear: "I don't believe so. Last May we got promises from the IRA out in public.

Michael McGimpsey: Commission not "value for money" in terms of product

"It was a public statement made to all of the people of Northern Ireland and I think if they break that, then there is no further role, I believe, for the de Chastelain Commission.

"I think then that process as a test and a guarantee of the agreement has run its course."

A spokesman for General de Chastelain said they would not be making any public comment other than that the commission had a mandate, it had a timeframe (June 2001) and it was working to these.

It has been an expensive process - £4.1 million for a few loyalist guns - hardly value for money?, I suggested to Michael McGimpsey.

"It's not value for money in terms of the product it has destroyed, but I would say that with the benefit of hindsight, people looking at this over the past two and a half years would say it was value for money in that it makes it glaringly obvious who is at fault in this whole process," he replied.

Secretary of State Peter Mandelson wants the paramilitaries to engage "seriously" with de Chastelain, but can he with any confidence say that decommissioning will take place?

"I believe that it will in time but it's not going to be done to order," he said.

"It is not going to be done in a way that is prescribed by outsiders or by ministers. It's not going to be done with any connotation of surrender on anyone's part and nor should it. I don't expect that."

While the push continues to achieve progress on decommissioning, the republican focus is on demilitarisation.

They argue that if the government had kept commitments on policing and security change that more progress would have been made on the arms issue.

Gerry Kelly: "Demilitarisation must be in your face"

And the senior Sinn Fein spokesman Gerry Kelly says that demilitarisation must be "in your face".

"What you need in a process like this is a momentum which is believeable, which has its own integrity, if you like.

"It needs to be in your face, it needs to be across the six counties so that people are saying: 'Well look, this is really happening'."

He dismisses government figures which show more than 30 base closures, the withdrawal of 3,500 soldiers and the lowest troop levels since 1970 as "minimalist".

So what way out of the decommissioning mess?

While the IRA has not destroyed any of its weapons, it has allowed a number of its dumps to be examined by international inspectors Martti Ahtisaari and Cyril Ramaphosa.

So could their role be extended to go beyond confidence building and into the area of putting weapons beyond use?

"It's possible," says the secretary of state, but it's a matter for General de Chastelain.

Up to now he has had to operate at a pace dictated by republicans and if there is to be any expanded role for the inspectors, it will be the IRA who decide.