Orde says IRA 'not returning' to violence

The PSNI Chief Constable has said there is no evidence to suggest that the IRA is planning a return to violence.

The PSNI Chief Constable has said there is no evidence to suggest that the IRA is planning a return to violence.

Sir Hugh Orde said police had no intelligence to suggest the IRA was returning to its armed struggle.

Hugh Orde made his comments in response to a question by the DUP's Ian Paisley junior at a meeting of the Northern Ireland Policing Board in Belfast.

Earlier, as Mr Orde was about to give his assessment on a new report by the Independent Monitoring Commission, which claimed they had received security force claims that the IRA had held on to some of its weapons, half a dozen people stood up and demanded to know where the information cited in the report came from.

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Robert McClenaghan, of the group An Fhírinne (Irish for truth), asked: "Who provided intelligence to the likes of the IMC? "Is it the same Special Branch police, same military people and the same members of the NIO (Northern Ireland Office) who have been involved in collusion for the last 35 years?"

His outburst, while others in the group held aloft placards, provoked a furious response from the Democratic Unionist representatives on the board .

Sammy Wilson said: "Are you defending the people who've killed people for 35 years? You are defending murderers."

The protesters were escorted out of the public meeting, some of them shouting "political policing" as they left.

Later, Hugh Orde refused to be drawn on the issue of alleged IRA activity.

Democratic Unionist representative William Hay urged him to clear up the confusion over whether the Independent Monitoring Commission's assessment that the IRA had retained some arms came from his officers

"We have discharged our duties as we are required to do properly in respect of both organisations (the IMC and General de Chastelain's Independent International Commission on Decommissioning), the Chief Constable said. "We have given full briefings of our intelligence and information to them." He added: "I have certainly delivered everything we're objected to do in a very honest, frank and open way to enable them to make judgments and add that to other intelligence and information they have."