From Unity, 7 October 2006

Progress at last?

Although not published at the time of Unity going to press, the Independent International Monitoring Commission’s 12th report seems set to show that key parts of the IRA’s structure have been dismantled or substantially reduced. There is now the evidence not only that the IRA does not want to go back to violence but also that it no longer has the capacity to mount a sustained campaign.
     The report will say that some IRA members remain involved in crime but that they are not acting with the authority of the organisation’s leadership. By contrast, amongst loyalists, while senior members of both the UDA and UVF are trying to find ways to engage with the peace process, criminal and paramilitary activity is still widespread.
     With this evidence it is to be hoped that progress can be made at the St Andrews talks in getting the Assembly back up and running. The worry is that the tired old rhetoric heard at last week’s Labour Party Conference from Paisley, about “not responding to threats and bullying” and “demolishing the IRA’s criminal empire” before Sinn Féin can be involved in government, may show that the DUP is still not prepared to get down to business. If that is the case then we can expect to be stuck in what Peter Hain last week called Northern Ireland’s ”political Groundhog Day.”
[JP]

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