IRA Tells of Contact With Panel
The Irish Republican Army said Sunday that its representative met with a Belfast-based disarmament commission--another step toward the arms hand-over vital to the survival of a new Protestant-Roman Catholic administration.
The outlawed IRA did not say where or when its representative had made contact with the commission, which is led by Canadian Gen. John de Chastelain. Nor did a brief IRA statement released to the British Broadcasting Corp. and Ireland’s RTE broadcasting network identify the representative.
The statement said the IRA expects further discussions.
A London tabloid, the Sunday Mirror, reported that the IRA had sent Padraig Wilson, a convicted terrorist still serving a 24-year sentence after being caught with a car bomb in Belfast. The newspaper said the rendezvous took place Saturday in Dundalk, near the border with the Irish Republic.
But the BBC, quoting sources at Northern Ireland’s Maze prison, said Wilson had not left the jail since Thursday.
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