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IRA disarmament announcement set

N. Ireland monitor expected to say IRA has scrapped weapons

From Nic Robertson
CNN

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(CNN) -- The Irish Republican Army has scrapped its weapons after more than three decades of armed struggle against British rule, the chief disarmament monitor for Northern Ireland is expected to announce Monday.

Gen. John de Chastelain, the head of the disarmament process, is scheduled to speak to reporters Monday evening in Belfast, and a spokesman said he would announce the IRA has "decommissioned" its weapons.

Battles between the Catholic IRA and its splinter groups and Protestant unionists, who want Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom, have killed nearly 4,000 people since 1969 -- an era known as "The Troubles."

The IRA announced in July that it had agreed to complete the disarmament process, which stalled in 2003 when it refused to allow photographic proof of the decommissioning. (Full story)

De Chastelain, a retired Canadian general, has overseen the disarmament process under the 1998 Good Friday peace accord. A spokesman for Sinn Fein, the political arm of the IRA, also told CNN that de Chastelain will announce that the IRA as put its weapons "beyond use."

Sinn Fein said it expected the language would be able to persuade even doubters that the IRA has made good on its July promise to disarm.

Among those skeptics are the leader of the hard-line Democratic Unionist Party, 78-year-old preacher Ian Paisley, who called the IRA's July statement "a hollow gesture." (Full story)

There was no immediate reaction from unionist leaders to Sunday's news.

The IRA has observed a cease-fire since 1997, but the power-sharing government established under the Good Friday pact collapsed in 2002 after Sinn Fein was unable to get full IRA cooperation on disarmament.

Authorities blamed the IRA for a bank robbery late last year, and said the group was involved in a bar killing early this year that brought the ire of Britain, Ireland and the United States.

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