Move could see guns traded for British army observation posts - An act of decommissioning by the IRA is expected within days and could precipitate a rapid de-escalation of the British military presence along the Border in south Armagh
From The Irish Times - 23rd October 2001
By Jim Cusack
At the meeting of the North's political leaders and both governments at Weston Park in Britain in July, however, there came the first inkling that a scaling down of the British military presence in this highly symbolic area of Northern nationalism could be under way. The Weston Park agreement indicated that three of the 11 observation posts could be closed in the context of a major positive move on IRA decommissioning.
The posts suggested for closure were at Sugar Loaf Hill, Sturgan Mountain and the inter-linked posts at Camlough Mountain.
These positions are in the "back line" of the British army's defensive structure in south Armagh. The seven front-line bases were to remain.
The promise of closing these back-line posts, however, was almost certainly insufficient to move many of the hard-line republicans in south Armagh to support decommissioning, while the seven most obvious posts remained on some of the most prominent hilltops along the Border.
According to senior British military sources there is no longer any over-arching necessity for the military to remain on any hilltops.
In fact, with the prospect of a major military campaign looming against supporters of the September 11th attacks, it seems clear the British army will be very keen to end a resource-draining deployment like south Armagh. For its part, the IRA was left with little option but to decommission after two dominating events in the late summer. The first was the revelation that it had been training members of the narco-terrorist group, FARC, in Colombia. FARC has for years been one of the United States' most hated foreign terrorist groups and has been responsible for supplying cocaine and heroin into the US, kidnapping US and Colombian citizens and attacking anti-narcotics bases funded by the US administration.
The second event was the September 11th attacks in New York and Washington. In the post-September 11th dispensation, with the IRA and Sinn Féin in facing opprobrium as an ally of "international terrorism", the IRA was faced with no option but to move quickly and decisively towards a major act of decommissioning.
Despite Sinn Féin's assertions that yesterday's statements by Mr Adams and Mr Martin McGuinness were of a historical and unique distinction, both men have made similar statements before and their words have not been followed up by action.
Mr Adams made a speech similar in content to yesterday's on July 18th, 1997, just prior to the reinstatement of the second IRA ceasefire.
Then, he said, he would "approach the IRA to restore their cessation" if he was confident that their response would be positive.
That speech had prompted major media speculation that IRA decommissioning was a short distance away. Nothing happened.
The only issue, it would seem, that remains to be resolved in the latest "breakthrough" concerns six IRA prisoners who are held, not in Northern Ireland or England, but in Castlerea Prison in Co Roscommon.
Five of these men are imprisoned for the manslaughter of Det Garda Jerry McCabe and the sixth is in prison for possession of details about a senior RUC officer and his family living in Co Tyrone.
It is understood that discussion over their release has taken place but that no promises have been made about early releases. |
