The Irish Republican Army yesterday announced it will abandon its armed campaign and resume disarmament in a dramatic declaration designed to revive Northern Ireland's peace process.

The IRA said all of its clandestine units had been ordered to dump their arms and cease all activities, effective from 1500 GMT yesterday, but it would not formally disband.

"The leadership has formally ordered an end to the armed campaign," the IRA said in a major advance from its open-ended truce in place since 1997.

"All volunteers have been instructed to assist the development of purely political and democratic programmes through exclusively peaceful means. Volunteers must not engage in any other activities whatsoever," the IRA command said in remarks addressed to the group's approximately 500 to 1,000 members.

The IRA statement said John de Chastelain, a retired Canadian general who since 1997 has been trying to persuade the IRA and other illegal groups to disarm, would be invited to decommission more hidden weapons bunkers soon. It said a Catholic priest and Protestant minister would be invited to witness the scrapping of weapons.

The IRA also appealed to Britain and Northern Ireland's Protestant majority to accept its new position as sufficient to resume negotiations on power-sharing, the core goal of the 1998 peace accord for this British territory.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair welcomed the IRA's statement that it would end its armed campaign.

"I welcome the statement of the IRA that ends its campaign, I welcome its clarity, I welcome the recognition that the only route to political change lies in exclusively peaceful and democratic means," Blair told reporters at Downing Street.

"This may be the day which finally after all these false dawns and dashed hopes peace replaced war, politics replaces terror on the island of Ireland," Blair told reporters.

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said: "Today's developments can herald a new era for all of the people on the island of Ireland.

"I welcome the commitment by the IRA to end its armed campaign, to complete the process of decommissioning and to use exclusively peaceful means," said Ahern.

"The end of the IRA as a paramilitary organization is the outcome the governments have been working towards since the cessation of military activities in 1994. If the IRA's words are borne out by verified actions it will be a momentous and historic development," he added.

But Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which supports continued union with Britain, was far less enthusiastic.

"Even on the face of the statement, they have failed to explicitly declare an end to their multi-million-pound criminal activity and have failed to provide the level of transparency that would be necessary to truly build confidence that the guns had gone in their entirety," a statement said.

Protestant leaders, deeply suspicious of IRA motives, warned in advance they would wait several months to test whether the IRA's words proved true. They noted that the IRA was supposed to have disarmed fully by mid-2000 as part of the Good Friday accord, but did not start the process until late 2001 and stopped in 2003.

Security experts say the IRA retains much of its arsenal hidden in underground bunkers in the neighbouring Republic of Ireland. The IRA received more than 130 tons of armaments from Libya in the mid-1980s, and police say the group continues to smuggle modern weaponry into the country.

All sides say they remain committed to resurrecting a joint Catholic-Protestant administration that would replace Britain as the primary government authority in this long-unstable corner of the United Kingdom. But Protestants insist they will not work again with Sinn Fein, the IRA-linked party, until the IRA disappears as a threat to Northern Ireland stability.

Difficult power-sharing

A four-party coalition led by Protestant and Catholic moderates gained power in 1999, but it fell apart in 2002 amid chronic arguments about IRA activities and arms.

Resurrecting power-sharing became more difficult in 2003 once voters - polarized by the diplomatic deadlock - shifted support to the opposite extremes of opinion: Gerry Adams' Sinn Fein on the Catholic side, and Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionists on the Protestant side.

A potential power-sharing pact between this unlikely duo fell apart in December when the IRA refused Protestant demands for disarmament to be recorded for public consumption. The IRA also rejected demands to renounce crime and accept the legitimacy of Northern Ireland's police force.

Since then the Sinn Fein-IRA movement has been thrown on the defensive by two events with exceptional repercussions - a mammoth robbery and an alcohol-fuelled killing. The British, Irish and US governments united behind the position that power-sharing could not be restored unless the IRA fully disarmed and went out of business - disbanding in practice if not in name.

In December, police accused the IRA of robbing a Belfast bank of a world-record 26.5 million pounds (US$50 million); the IRA responded by denying involvement - and restating its traditional position that its activities should never be described as "crime."

In January, IRA members knifed to death a Catholic civilian outside a Belfast bar, an action that highlighted the group's decades-old role as an intimidating power broker within its working-class Catholic bases. The IRA had killed others in similar circumstances but this time the victim's family risked IRA retaliation by publicly campaigning for justice.

Part of IRA statement

"The leadership of Oglaigh na hEireann (the IRA) has formally ordered an end to the armed campaign. This will take effect from 1500 GMT this afternoon. All IRA units have been ordered to dump arms. All volunteers have been instructed to assist the development of purely political and democratic programmes through exclusively peaceful means.

Volunteers must not engage in any other activities whatsoever. The IRA leadership has also authorized a representative to engage with the IICD to complete the process to verifiably put its arms beyond use in a way which will further enhance public confidence and to conclude this as quickly as possible.

We have invited two independent witnesses, from the Protestant and catholic churches, to testify to this.

The Army Council took these decisions following an unprecedented internal discussion and consultation process with IRA units and volunteers.

We appreciate the honest and forthright way in which the consultation process was carried out and the depth and content of the submissions. We are proud of the comradely way in which this truly historic discussion was conducted.

The outcome of our consultations show very strong support among IRA volunteers for the Sinn Fein peace strategy.

There is also widespread concern about the failure of the two governments and the unionists to fully engage in the peace process. This has created real difficulties.

The overwhelming majority of people in Ireland fully support this process. They and friends of Irish unity through the world want to see the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.

Notwithstanding these difficulties, our decisions have been taken to advance our republican and democratic objectives, including our goal of a united Ireland. We believe there is now an alternative way to achieve this and to end British rule in our country."

Source: China Daily