February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The IMC, which is tasked with monitoring and assessing paramilitary activity, said in its report that the IRA leadership was firmly committed to the political path and has disavowed any participation by IRA members in crime.
The report’s findings have been welcomed by both the Irish and British governments.
A positive assessment of the IRA’s position and intentions is considered vital in the effort to restore devolved government in the North, the deadline for which is Nov. 24.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern hailed the IMC report as being of the utmost importance while British Prime Minister Tony Blair said it opened the door to a final settlement in the North.
The report’s views were signaled at the beginning of this week but its precise contents were not made public until Wednesday.
The report pointed to criminal activity on the part of some Provisional IRA members but stressed that the IRA’s leadership has been firm in its opposition to any such activity.
The report – the 12th compiled by the four-member commission since it was set up in 2004 – portrays an IRA that is no longer engaged in training for military activity, is not engaging in acts of terrorism and which has no plans to do so in the future.
In contrast, the IMC does warn that the Real IRA still poses a threat to peace in the North.
The commission highlights some progress within the loyalist UDA towards a less militant stance and suggests a slight falling off in the level of drug dealing by UDA members.
But it’s the commission’s assessment of the Provisionals that is seen as being especially critical in the context of efforts to restore power sharing.
Irish government sources were indicating Wednesday that the report signaled a security landscape that had been radically transformed and that this created a positive context for real political engagement by the North political parties, not least Sinn F