McDowell encouraged by IRA progress
Northern Ireland has potential for a huge transformation with the IRA progressing towards democracy, Justice Minister Michael McDowell said today.
Following an assessment of paramilitary activity by the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC), the Minister said initial signs that the terror group was staying true to its pledge to end its armed campaign and criminality were encouraging.
But he warned the true test would come over the next few months.
Mr McDowell said: “The IMC reports that it is too early to be drawing firm conclusions about possible overall changes in PIRA behaviour.
“However, taken together with the IRA statement of July 28 and the subsequent act of final decommissioning by that organisation in September, there does appear to be the potential for a huge transformation in the situation in Northern Ireland and a full return to representative politics.”
The seventh report from the IMC stated the IRA was making encouraging progress in moving from paramilitarism to politics.
The four-member body reported the Provisional IRA had assaulted one of its own members since announcing an end to its armed campaign almost three months ago.
And the IMC said it could not reach a full judgment on whether the Provisionals were honouring the July 28 pledge to focus solely on politics.
Mr McDowell insisted the next report from the IMC, due out in January, would offer a greater insight into whether the Provisionals had abandoned criminality.
“That report will provide a greater test over a longer period of the extent to which the provisional movement has abandoned criminality in all its forms,” he said.
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