THE Provisional IRA has destroyed all its arms in a move that consolidates its announcement in July that its 35-year campaign to end British rule in Northern Ireland was over.

The announcement was made by General John de Chastelain, the head of the arms decommissioning body, and endorsed by two clergymen who witnessed the work of putting IRA arms “beyond use” last week. The retired Canadian serviceman said: “We are satisfied that the arms decommissioned represent the totality of the IRA’s arsenal.

“We have observed and verified events to put beyond use very large quantities of arms, which we believe include all the arms in the IRA’s possession.” He revealed that he and two colleagues had handled every weapon, weighed all the explosive material and made an inventory of the arms, which has been passed to the British and Irish governments.

The Democratic Unionists, whose endorsement of General de Chastelain’s report is crucial to Northern Ireland’s political future, were unimpressed. The Rev Ian Paisley, the party’s leader, complained that there had been no transparent verification of IRA decommissioning in the announcement. He said that the church witnesses had been agreed by the IRA and as such could not be considered independent. Without photographic proof, an inventory and details of how the weapons were destroyed, questions remained.

“This afternoon the people of Northern Ireland watched a programme which illustrates more than ever the duplicity and dishonesty of the two governments and the IRA,” Mr Paisley said.

The arms included a full range of ammunition, rifles, machineguns, mortars, missiles, handguns, explosives, explosive substances and other arms, including all the cate-gories described in the estimates of the size of the IRA’s arsenal that was provided to him by British and Irish security services, General de Chastelain said. “In September 2004, the commission got estimates of numbers and quantities of arms from security for-ces in both jurisdictions. Our new inventory is consistent with these estimates.”

The IRA announced an end to its armed campaign in July and said that it would henceforth follow a democratic and political path towards Irish reunification. In a brief statement the IRA leadership confirmed the general’s report, saying that it could “confirm that the pro-cess of putting arms beyond use has been completed”.

The churchmen who witnessed the process were Father Alex Reid, a Roman Catholic priest, and the Rev Harold Good, the former Methodist president. They said: “The experience of seeing this with our own eyes, on a minute-to-minute basis, provided us with evidence so clear and of its nature so incontrovertible that at the end of the process it demonstrated to us, and would have demonstrated to anyone who might have been with us, that beyond any shadow of doubt the arms of the IRA have now been decommissioned.” Tony Blair said that the completion of decommissioning was “an important step in the transition from conflict to peace in Northern Ireland”.

He added: “The true importance of today is that these weapons can never again be used to inflict suffering and create more victims.”

Bertie Ahern, the Irish Prime Minister, said that it was a landmark development that had finally taken the gun out of Irish politics.

He appealed to Unionists not to underestimate the importance of the move.

Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein president, said that the announcement would be difficult for many republicans but it was a very brave and bold leap. He said that progress was now needed on outstanding issues, including policing and “on-the-run” paramilitaries.

Mr Paisley’s deputy, the Belfast East MP Peter Robinson, said he agreed that a signi-ficant amount of IRA weapons had been destroyed. Mr Robinson said he accepted that it had been “a more substantial event than the previous events put together”.

The Ulster Unionist Party said: “It is imperative that the movement’s criminal empire be dismantled as well.”

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