Magnitude of IRA's act lost in veil of secrecy

John de Chastelain may have overseen the decommissioning of 400rifles, writes Tom Clonan

John de Chastelain may have overseen the decommissioning of 400rifles, writes Tom Clonan

Gen John de Chastelain's statement on Tuesday's decomissioning of Provisional IRA weapons reveals a number of insights into a process shrouded in secrecy. According to the general, all types of weapons, including light, medium and heavy ordnance, along with explosives, ammunition and explosive material, were destroyed.

In an otherwise vague statement, he said the process involved an initial inspection of the weapons to ascertain their operational status, followed by the process of destruction. He conceded that this process had taken place on the island of Ireland and that it "took hours".

The fact it took hours suggests that a large number of weapons were destroyed. In a process remarkably similar to that carried out by Gen de Chastelain, army officers throughout the world are familiar with a weekly routine known as the ordnance check. It consists of an officer physically inspecting the weapons, ammunition and ancillary equipment of the unit under their command.

READ MORE

As an army officer in the Irish Defence Forces, I regularly carried out such checks in various units over an 11-year period. This form of stock-taking requires the officer to examine individually the working parts and serial numbered items of every automatic rifle and pistol within the unit. In addition, the officer would be required to sign a detailed inventory accounting for the weapons and ammunition.

In one such unit, in my own experience, it would take an average of around 40 minutes to physically check 120 automatic rifles, 12 automatic pistols and six medium artillery pieces.

I would therefore estimate that in any given hour, Gen de Chastelain and his team would be able to inspect and take inventory of up to 200 automatic weapons and 10 medium weapons.

On the basis of the general's statement that the event took hours, I would presume it took at least two hours. I would therefore conclude that, at a minimum, he witnessed the destruction of at least 400 rifles and machine-guns, and as many as 20 rocket-propelled grenade launchers and/or sniper rifles.

This number would be consistent with Gen de Chastelain's statement that the amount of weapons rendered unusable was considerable.

The most time-consuming part of the decommissioning process is likely to have been the physical inspection and verification of the type and number of weapons and ammunition involved. The destruction is likely to have been much quicker.

Rifles and mortars can be easily destroyed with angle-grinders or the type of grinders found in machine shops and manufacturing plants.

However, based on the requirement for secrecy and concealment, the weapons are likely to have been quietly disassembled and buried under tonnes of wet cement. This may have taken place in the underground bunkers constructed for their storage.

In relation to explosive materials such as Semtex, a number of destruction options will have been explored by the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) and their Provisional IRA contacts. High explosives such as Semtex have stable explosive natures and can be disposed of by burning - once ignited, a kilo of Semtex will take around 45 seconds to burn. They could also simply be detonated in the open.

However, given the quantities of Semtex involved and the requirement for secrecy, it is likely that such explosives were also entombed within massed concrete alongside the disassembled weapons.

If the number of weapons destroyed on Tuesday number in the hundreds, this would represent a very significant step towards the total disarmament of the Provisional IRA.

This is especially so given the intelligence community's estimate that at any given time during the Troubles the number of active Provisional IRA volunteers numbered in the low hundreds.

The public on both sides of the Border is likely to be reassured by the statement given by Gen de Chastelain's colleague, Mr Andrew Sens, that the material put beyond use on Tuesday could otherwise have caused death or destruction "on a huge scale".

The challenge for the British and Irish governments will be to wrest the symbolic power of this act of disarmament from a process shrouded in secrecy.

Dr Tom Clonan is a retired army officer with experience in the Middle East and former Yugoslavia. He is a fellow of the US-based Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society, and lectures in the School of Media, DIT