Churchmen could be present for decommissioning
Catholic and Protestant churchmen could be present at any future act of IRA decommissioning it emerged tonight.
It is understood that republican leadership would agree to them being present provided the disarmament was part of an overall package which would restore and guarantee power sharing government in Northern Ireland.
The British government is due to present papers to the Sinn Féin and the DUP tomorrow outlining proposals aimed at getting the institutions up and running again as soon as possible.
London and Dublin are looking for a decision before the end of the month and sources in Belfast tonight confirmed that one of the proposals under consideration is that two churchmen, one from either side of the community would be present if there was to be another act of decommissioning.
But it was made clear that this would have to be in the context of an overall deal, hammered out by all sides.
The Rev Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionist Party has been pushing hard for transparency in any disarmament process.
The East Derry MP Gregory Campbell said tonight: “If churchmen were present it would represent some progress towards what we wanted to see.”
But he insisted: “We need to have credible and viable decommissioning and there needs to be a visual aspect to it if we are to give confidence to the community.
“There was a failure to do that in the past.”
The Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh, Doctor Robin Eames, the head of the Church of Ireland, told PA tonight: “There has been talk of this nature for some time but I have no comment to make.”
A Sinn Féin spokesman described the claims as speculation and refused to comment further.
He said: “We have consistently refused to comment in any way on the detail of discussions with the (British) government. In particular we have refused to get involved in any speculation that has existed around the issue of arms.”
