THE report of the International Body on Arms Decommissioning recommended that participants in all party negotiations seeking "an agreed political settlement and to take the gun out of Irish politics" should affirm their commitment to the following six principles:
1. To democratic and exclusively peaceful means of resolving political issues;
2. To the total disarmament of all paramilitary organisations;
3. To agree that such disarmament must be verifiable to the satisfaction of an independent commission;
4. To renounce for themselves, and to oppose any effort by others, to use force, or threaten to use force, to influence the course or the outcome of all party negotiations;
5. To agree to abide by the terms of any agreement reached in all party negotiations and to resort to democratic and exclusively peaceful methods in trying to alter any aspect of that outcome with which they may disagree; and
6. To urge that "punishment" killings and beatings stop and to take effective steps to prevent such actions.
