Decommissioning in Northern Ireland

During The Troubles, both republican and loyalist paramilitary groups sourced vast amounts of arms and ammunition for use in their campaigns. The Provisional Irish Republican Army initially sourced many of their weapons from the USA, eventually obtaining many Armalite AR-15 rifles along with batches of military grade arms such as M60 machine guns and Barrett M82 sniper rifles.^[3] In the mid-1980's Muammar Gaddafi gifted the IRA over 130 tonnes of military weapons, which included an estimated 1,000 AKM assault rifles along with more than a metric ton of Semtex plastic explosives, several SA-7 Grail infrared-homing missiles and dozens of DShK heavy machine guns.^[4][5][6] By the time of the July 1997 ceasefire, Irish security forces estimated the IRA to have over 350 tonnes of weapons under their control.^[7] The Ulster Volunteer Force obtained hundreds of military grade weapons such as MAC-10s, Uzis, and Colt Commando carbines in the early 1980s via supporters in Canada,^[8] while a joint operation involving the Ulster Resistance and the Ulster Defence Association resulted in hundreds of VZ58 assault rifles and thousands of rounds of ammunition being smuggled into Belfast from the Middle East in December 1987.^[9]

The Belfast Agreement, or Good Friday Agreement, was signed in Belfast on 10 April 1998 (Good Friday) by the British and Irish governments and endorsed by most Northern Ireland political parties.

It contained provisions for a government involving both Catholics and Protestants, whose traditional aspirations, expressed as nationalism on one side and unionism on the other, had often clashed over the years. The Agreement recognised the legitimacy of both aspirations.^[10] One of the provisions of the Agreement was that the parties agree to collectively use their influence to achieve decommissioning within two years, by May 2000.^[1]

The Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) was established to oversee the decommissioning. Its objective was to facilitate the decommissioning of firearms, ammunition and explosives.

Into late 2001, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) was reluctant to disarm, and went on to refuse disarmament, saying that the British government had reneged on its side of the bargain,: specifically:

• by watering down the reforms of the Royal Ulster Constabulary proposed by the Patten Commission, and
• by failing to pull troops out of Northern Ireland.^[11]

After the original (May 2000) deadline for decommissioning passed, the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning set 30 June 2001; that date passed, as well, without full disarmament.^[10][12]

The crisis reached its climax in July 2001, as David Trimble, the Ulster Unionist Party leader, resigned as first minister of the power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive, in protest against the IRA's failure to redeem its pledge to put its weapons "completely and verifiably beyond use". (He would later be re-elected.)^[11] The peace process was on the brink of collapse again, after the Provisional IRA failed to convince either the UK Government, or the Ulster Unionists, that they had made "sufficient progress towards decommissioning".^[1]

On 7 August 2001, the IRA agreed on a method of destroying its arsenal. Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at the time, described the breakthrough as "significant" and "historic". General John de Chastelain of Canada, chairman of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning, said the proposals had been accepted by the panel as ones that would "put IRA arms completely and verifiably beyond use." The Ulster Unionists had said they would no longer take part in the Northern Ireland Assembly if the IRA did not begin disarming. The announcement came after meetings between the commission and a representative of the IRA.^[13]

During the process of decommissioning the Democratic Unionist Party demanded that the IRA release photographs of the decommissioning process in order to satisfy the unionist "man in the street".^[14] The IRA rejected these claims, claiming it would amount to "humiliation", and that two clergymen would oversee the process instead.^[15] On 26 September 2005, head of the International Commission on Decommissioning General John De Chastelain announced that the IRA had finally completed the decommissioning of all arms and ammunition under its control, adding that the bulk of the work had taken place over the previous week and had finished two days previously.^[16]

In June 2009, both the Ulster Volunteer Force and Red Hand Commando announced that they had completed a process of decommissioning. The UDA said it had started a process that would lead to the destruction of all its arms.^[17] Originally, both organisations had refused to decommission, claiming that copying the IRA's action would amount to "dancing to their tune".^[18]