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IRA Disarmament Not Whole Story

According to a report published by Britain and Ireland, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) has halted violence still gathers intelligence on enemies and remains deeply involved in organized crime. The IRA`s seven-man command said its rank-and-file members were fully observing the group`s six-month-old peace declaration.

Both the British and Irish governments also published a two-page report from retired Canadian General John de Chastelain, who leads the separate commission that destroyed IRA weapons dumps in September. De Chastelain and his deputies said they stood by their original judgment that the IRA had fully disarmed.

The Independent Monitoring Commission`s 46-page report raised doubts about when the outlawed IRA would disband in support of Northern Ireland`s 1998 peace accord and its central goal: power-sharing between the province`s British Protestant majority and Irish Catholic minority.