BELFAST (AFP) — The IRA's military wing is no longer operational, independent monitors said Wednesday in a report on one of the main stumbling blocks to the power-sharing government in Northern Ireland.
"This groundbreaking report by the IMC (Independent Monitoring Commission) makes clear that the Army Council is now redundant," said Northern Ireland minister, Shaun Woodward.
"The Army Council is no longer operational or functional."
Woodward said the IMC, which oversees paramilitary activity in the British province, concluded that the Irish Republican Army (IRA/PIRA) "has completely relinquished the leadership and other structures appropriate to a time of armed conflict".
It made clear in its report that "what matters is that the armed conflict is completely over and the leadership structures have definitely ceased to function in the way they did during the time of conflict".
The report, commissioned by the British and Irish governments, comes at a time of tension in the power-sharing administration of Catholic republican Sinn Fein -- the IRA's political wing -- and the Protestant unionist DUP.
DUP leader Peter Robinson has said he will refuse to meet republican demands for the devolution of policing and justice powers to the Northern Ireland Assembly until the IRA Army Council "disbands".
The IMC report said it was "aware of the questions posed about the public disbandment of PIRA's leadership structures".
"We believe that PIRA has chosen another method of bringing what it describes as its armed struggle to a final close," it said.
The report said the IRA had allowed the Army Council to "fall into disuse", although it did not use the term "disband".
The IRA conducted a three-decade campaign of bombings and shootings during the so-called Troubles between Catholics and Protestants as it strove for Northern Ireland to break away from British rule.
The landmark 1998 Good Friday peace agreement ended most violence in the province and self-rule resumed last year after a landmark accord between the DUP and Sinn Fein.
Both the British and Irish governments welcomed the report, as did Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, who told Sky News television: "The IMC has said definitely that the IRA has gone, that's there no threat, that there's no possibility of the IRA coming back."
Robinson offered a cautious welcome to the conclusions, saying the DUP "acknowledge the progress on the dismantling of terrorist structures."
But he added: "While it is marked progress that the IRA is no longer 'doing business', the Unionist community needs to be convinced by the republican leadership that the IRA is out of business for good."
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Wednesday's report should provide "reassurance and hope" to everyone who wants an end to conflict in Northern Ireland.
"It is now time for all the political parties to work together to complete the final stages of the peace process -- to complete the devolution of policing and justice," he told reporters.
Ireland's Justice Minister Dermot Ahern echoed this sentiment, adding: "This report demonstrates not only that PIRA has gone away, but that it won't be coming back.
"The IMC could not have been more unequivocal in its conclusion that the provisional movement is now irreversibly locked into following the political path."
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