IRA arms destruction gives new hope for Northern Ireland peace process

LONDON – A historic move by the IRA to ditch its arms has injected new momentum into Northern Ireland’s peace process and steps must be made towards resuming a devolved government, British newspapers said yesterday.

But they warned of obstacles ahead and highlighted the province’s main Protestant party, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), as a key stumbling block. Newspapers said the Irish Republican Army’s action to decommission its weapons was long overdue, coming seven years after the ground-breaking Good Friday peace agreement in 1998.But they welcomed it as a sign of genuine progress and hoped the militant Catholic group would also eliminate all other aspects of alleged criminality.”The IRA has delivered, if not peace …then at least a sense that it may again be possible,” the Guardian newspaper wrote in an editorial.It described the announcement on Monday by General John de Chastelain, the retired Canadian military chief overseeing the disarmament process, that the IRA had disarmed as “an extra-ordinary moment”.”Yesterday’s news demonstrated that the peace process is genuine, is developing and that some of those who matter are still engaged in it.”At the same time, it warned: “It is in no way the end of the process.”The Guardian said the next moves were clear: the return of a devolved government in Belfast – which was suspended almost three years ago – and the ongoing reduction of the role of paramilitary forces.In addition, it scolded a negative reaction by the hardline DUP, which dismissed the decommissioning report on Monday.For its part, The Times newspaper warned the DUP to participate in the peace process or risk being left out in the cold.It also advised Unionists, who along with the British government were targets of IRA violence for more than three decades, to offer a credible response to the IRA’s action.”Unionism will seem implausible if it fails to react rationally,” it said.”It will also render itself irrelevant,” The Times said in an editorial.”If the DUP chooses early next year to sit on the sidelines …the peace process will continue without it.”The IRA’s political wing Sinn Fein – Northern Ireland’s largest Catholic political party – is lobbying for a revival of the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont Castle, noted the newspaper.Unionists should review their priorities in the light of new developments.- Nampa-AFPNewspapers said the Irish Republican Army’s action to decommission its weapons was long overdue, coming seven years after the ground-breaking Good Friday peace agreement in 1998.But they welcomed it as a sign of genuine progress and hoped the militant Catholic group would also eliminate all other aspects of alleged criminality.”The IRA has delivered, if not peace …then at least a sense that it may again be possible,” the Guardian newspaper wrote in an editorial.It described the announcement on Monday by General John de Chastelain, the retired Canadian military chief overseeing the disarmament process, that the IRA had disarmed as “an extra-ordinary moment”.”Yesterday’s news demonstrated that the peace process is genuine, is developing and that some of those who matter are still engaged in it.”At the same time, it warned: “It is in no way the end of the process.”The Guardian said the next moves were clear: the return of a devolved government in Belfast – which was suspended almost three years ago – and the ongoing reduction of the role of paramilitary forces.In addition, it scolded a negative reaction by the hardline DUP, which dismissed the decommissioning report on Monday.For its part, The Times newspaper warned the DUP to participate in the peace process or risk being left out in the cold.It also advised Unionists, who along with the British government were targets of IRA violence for more than three decades, to offer a credible response to the IRA’s action.”Unionism will seem implausible if it fails to react rationally,” it said.”It will also render itself irrelevant,” The Times said in an editorial.”If the DUP chooses early next year to sit on the sidelines …the peace process will continue without it.”The IRA’s political wing Sinn Fein – Northern Ireland’s largest Catholic political party – is lobbying for a revival of the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont Castle, noted the newspaper.Unionists should review their priorities in the light of new developments.- Nampa-AFP

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