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BELFAST, Oct 24: The Irish Republican Army’s move to take its arsenal out of service brought a swift response on Wednesday from the British government which said it would tear down four key security installations in Northern Ireland.
Two watchtowers in the guerrilla heartland of south Armagh and two others would be taken down “logistically and physically as quickly as possible”, a government spokesman said.
A high-profile British security presence, particularly in south Armagh, has long been a source of republican grievance.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Tuesday’s momentous announcement by the IRA, which has fought British rule in Northern Ireland for 30 years, would lead to further scaling back of a 13,500-strong military presence in the province.
“It requires us now to push on with trying to normalise the situation in Northern Ireland,” he said.
The Northern Ireland conflict has claimed the lives of at least 3,600 people on all sides.
The IRA’s arms announcement — unparalleled in the history of Irish republicanism — also cleared the way for a kickstart to the province’s devolved government, stalled after a walkout by pro-British Protestants over the arms issue.
Protestant leader David Trimble is now expected to return to the government, where the Protestant and pro-Irish Roman Catholic communities share power under the landmark 1998 Good Friday peace agreement.
A full resumption of the political structures, dogged by squabbles since 1998, will fill a vacuum which has led to intense bouts of sectarian violence in recent months.
PRESSURE ON MILITIAS: The announcement by the IRA, which has been observing a ceasefire since 1997, has also put pressure on Protestant “loyalist” militias to make a reciprocal move.
These have carried out more and more acts of violence and the British government announced this month it no longer recognised the ceasefire they declared in 1994.
One of the main Protestant militias, the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), announced it would not match the IRA disarmament move by handing in any of its own guns.
And a spokesman made clear some renegade republican guerrillas were not planning to lay down their arms.
“There are other sections of the Republican Army still opposing Britain’s presence on the island (of Ireland),” said Joe Dillon of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, which speaks for the Real IRA.
“They (the Real IRA) will no doubt pick up the mantle of being the IRA now and continue the challenge to Britain’s occupation,” he told BBC radio.
The Real IRA, whose members split from the mainstream IRA over opposition to the Good Friday Agreement, has carried out a series of attacks in recent years, including firing a rocket-propelled grenade at the London headquarters of the MI6 intelligence service.
The IRA’s push to dismantle its vast underground arsenal is wreathed in secrecy, with the guerrillas anxious to avoid the perceived humiliation of any public handover of weapons to British authorities.—Reuters
