Unionists wary of IRA offer

Trimble would have to persuade doubters in his party

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble will attempt to persuade his party to accept the IRA's arms offer - if he can secure guarantees that the paramilitaries' proposal is genuine.

The British and Irish Governments, the nationalist SDLP and Sinn Fein welcomed the IRA's offer to open its arms dumps to independent inspection and re-engage with the decommissioning commission, while anti-agreement unionists rejected it.

Speaking to the BBC the Ulster Unionist leader urged people to be cautious of the IRA statement.

There is a real historic chance now for Ireland

Peter Mandelson
NI Secretary of State

But he said he hoped he could bring his party with him into a process of restarting Northern Ireland devolution if he could verify that the IRA move would lead to "complete and permanent decommissioning".

The impasse between the Ulster Unionists and Sinn Fein over the IRA's refusal to disarm led the government to suspend the political institutions set up under the Good Friday Agreement in February.

During the political stalemate which followed Mr Trimble, who leads the largest unionist party, called for clarity from republicans on their intentions to disarm and end their war.

Mandelson: Urgency in moving process forward

He urged caution, saying his party had moved into the power-sharing executive with Sinn Fein in November on the mistaken expectation of IRA decommissioning.

But he said: "We have to explore just exactly what is meant by this inspection process, how it is going to conducted and what procedures are going to be adopted to ensure that guns have remained secure.

"And then we want to be sure that this process of inspection is part of an overall process leading to full and complete decommissioning and that when the IRA say that they will put their guns beyond use completely and verifiably that it is complete and permanent."

'Other concerns'

But Mr Trimble will have an uphill struggle as hardliners in his party have already dismissed the IRA's statement.

UUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson said: "The real issue here is when and how are the IRA going to decommission their illegal weapons. It is not good enough simply to give access to bunkers which remain in the possession of the IRA and to which the IRA has full access."

And the Ulster Unionist leader also said that whether he could bring his party with him back into the assembly executive would depend on whether the government had listened to Ulster Unionist concerns on other issues.

The party's ruling council is expected to meet before 22 May to make a decision on the question.

Unionists concerned about RUC name and symbols change

It recently voted to make retaining the Royal Ulster Constabulary's name a pre-condition to re-entering an executive with Sinn Fein.

In a joint letter to the parties this week, London and Dublin repeated that the RUC would be changed to the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

But Mr Trimble said he hoped that his party's concerns would be addressed when the legislation to reform the RUC was being framed.

"The government will have to make up its mind soon. And I hope it will produce a fair and balanced set of proposals. All we are asking for is a fair compromise," he said.

'Historic chance'

Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson said Saturday's IRA statement offered a basis on which the province's devolved assembly could be re-started on 22 May.

"We have never had a statement like this from the IRA before.

"But the words are going to be followed up by deeds in weeks and I think that is very important, so that people can have some trust and confidence that it is for real," he said.

I assume that when the arms are put into dumps that Mr Ramaphosa and I will lead those inspections so that this process would create further confidence and the peace process could move forward

Martti Ahtisaari

The British and Irish governments have also sent a copy of their proposed timetable for implementing all the outstanding elements of the Good Friday Agreement including policing reform, the criminal justice review, prisoner releases and decommissioning by June 2001, to the parties.

The IRA said that within weeks it would make a "confidence-building measure to confirm that its weapons remain secure," in the context of the Good Friday Agreement being fully implemented.

The former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari and former ANC secretary general Cyril Ramaphosa have been named carry out inspections to verify that its weapons are secure at a number of arms dumps.

Martin McGuinness: Hope unionist concerns can be eased

Mr Ahtisaari said: "I assume that when the arms are put into arms dumps that Mr Ramaphosa and I will lead those inspections so that this process would create further confidence and the peace process could move forward."

Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness described the offer to open arms dumps to independent inspection as "huge - a mighty step forward."

He said: "I think whatever difficulties or problems that the unionists might have, can be ironed out successfully."

He added that he was "very heartened by the response that I have heard from at least those unionists who are prepared to be positive and constructive about how we handle this particular situation".