IMC to issue positive report on IRA commitment to peace
The Independent Monitoring Commission is expected to issue a positive assessment of the IRA's commitment to peace when its latest report is published tomorrow.
In its last report earlier this year, the body set up to monitor paramilitary ceasefires said it believed the IRA was genuine about ending paramilitarism and criminality.
However, it said the IRA was still engaged in intelligence-gathering and some members continued to be involved in crime.
The IMC also said there was "credible" information that the IRA had not decommissioned all of its weapons, as it claimed to have done.
Tomorrow's report, however, is expected to say that these weapons were retained against the specific orders of the IRA leadership.
The Irish and British governments are likely to use the assessment to put more pressure on the DUP to agree to share power with republicans.
However, the hardline unionist party is unlikely to respond positively.
In an address to the British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body in Co Kerry yesterday, DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson reiterated that he and his colleagues would not be "bullied" into any power-sharing arrangement.
He said the DUP would not budge until it was fully satisfied that the IRA's commitment to exclusively peaceful means was "stable and enduring, not tactical and strategic".
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