THE BRITISH and Irish governments have asked the International Monitoring Commission to produce a special report clarifying the status and role of the IRA's army council. DAN KEENAN, Northern News Editor reports
The IMC was asked to produce an ad-hoc report "on the future of the Provisional IRA" by Northern Secretary Shaun Woodward and the Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern last month before the Westminster recess.
However, the two governments only made public their decision yesterday, as the four commission members prepare to "go public to receive public soundings", a reliable source said.
It is the second major announcement concerning security devolution within three days. On Monday the North's First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness published three main points of agreement on the future shape of a new Stormont justice department.
The commissioners are expected to produce their findings on September 1st, as pressure to transfer security responsibility to the Northern Executive grows.
The IMC's findings will be pivotal to justice devolution, a key Sinn Féin demand that is regarded with the utmost caution by the DUP. Junior Minister Jeffrey Donaldson said yesterday: "There are still outstanding issues that need to be resolved to our satisfaction. The DUP will not be content until every last vestige of IRA structures has disappeared."
Members of the IMC argued previously that continuation of the IRA army council was necessary to help oversee major developments in the ending of the IRA campaign.
But it is now evident that the two governments wish to see fresh evidence that this role is drawing to a close, presumably with a view to facilitating justice devolution.
The IMC reported last May that all paramilitary groups had "to demonstrate that they have finally disposed of all their terrorist capabilities and weapons". The report added, specifically in relation to the IRA: "We assess that in practice this [process] is all but complete."
It is this that the governments want clarified by the new report.
The issue has continued to pose threats to political stability despite the ending of the IRA campaign, the standing down of its units and the witnessed decommissioning of its arsenal. Last June it threatened to undermine the smooth transition of leadership within the DUP and the election of Mr Robinson as First Minister.
The UUP is trenchantly opposed to the transfer of justice powers, with Sir Reg Empey arguing that the Robinson-McGuinness model is both premature and "half-baked".
European Parliament member Jim Allister, who quit the DUP over powersharing with Sinn Féin, said yesterday the request to the IMC for a special report was a "patently choreographed move to ease the implementation of the DUP's deal with IRA/Sinn Féin over policing and justice".
He forecast that the IMC would do little other than provide an assessment that suited the governments.
"Whatever the IMC agrees to say, no IRA acolyte, such as McGuinness, should ever be allowed to exercise justice powers, and, yet, this is precisely what the DUP is seeking to do."