Unionists return to Stormont
Ulster Unionist ministers in the Stormont Executive were returning to their ministerial desks today, as the British Army dismantled four military installations in response to IRA decommissioning.
Enterprise Minister Sir Reg Empey, Culture Minister Michael McGimpsey and Environment Minister Sam Foster were reinstated by UUP leader David Trimble yesterday, almost one week after they walked out of the executive over the failure of the IRA to disarm.
Their return follows confirmation by the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning that the IRA had honoured a commitment to put its weapons beyond use.
The Provisionals’ groundbreaking move set in train a series of measures by the Government to progress other aspects of the Good Friday Agreement including the scaling down of Army bases and lookout posts.
Work began yesterday on the demolition of two mountaintop lookout posts in Camlough in the republican heartland of south Armagh.
The dismantling of a supersangar (lookout post) at neighbouring Newtownhamilton police station and an army base at Magherafelt, Co Derry, are due to get under way today.
Announcing the measures in the House of Commons, Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid pledged to introduce a progressive rolling programme of security normalisation, reducing troop levels and military installations as the paramilitary threat diminished.
It is also envisaged the Government will bring forward further police reform legislation, review criminal justice as well as honour human rights and equality measures.
Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble will also put his name forward in the Northern Ireland Assembly seeking his old job as First Minister if he gets the backing of his party’s 110-member policy-making executive on Saturday.
Two independent inspectors who examined the IRA’s secret dumps as part of a confidence-building process have also stepped down following decommissioning.
Cyril Ramaphosa of the African National Congress and Martti Ahthisaari, the former Finnish president, welcomed the IRA’s historic move and said they were no longer needed now that the process had started.
No details of the actual form of decommissioning have been disclosed, but it is believed a substantial, but unspecified, quantity of guns, ammunition and explosives were destroyed in the two secret dumps where they were hidden.
RUC Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan last night claimed the Provisional IRA’s decision to disarm was as close as the organisation had ever come to demonstrating its war was over.
He said: ‘‘I think their war can be over. To say that it is definitively over would be just a step too far at this stage.’’
But he added: ‘‘Anyone who knows the history of violent Irish republicanism knows that the decision to take this step is much more important and significant than the amount of material actually affected by the decision.
‘‘Therefore, we are certainly the closest yet, in my estimation, to saying that the war waged by the Provisional IRA is over.’’
Sir Ronnie also acknowledged there continued to be a threat from dissident republicans opposed to the peace process.
As if to underline the point, it emerged two people believed to be dissident republicans were being questioned by police after they were arrested in possession of a sub-machine gun last night.
The Chief Constable insisted the arrests were evidence of the RUC determination to keep up the pressure on dissident republicans.
Police sealed off a slip-road from the M1 motorway near Moira, Co Down during the security operation.
