N. Ireland: Both Sides Must Disarm

“Pressing Onward for Ulster” (editorial, Dec. 29) says of Ian Paisley: “For the benefit of his own people, time and progress should send Paisley -- none too soon -- to the dustbin of history.” As a U.S. citizen who has lobbied on behalf of the full implementation of the 1998 Good Friday agreement, I certainly agree with that assertion. The editorial goes on to say, “But nothing could speed Northern Ireland’s progress more than for the IRA to disarm -- and accept that change comes via ballots, not bullets.”

Since the signing of the Good Friday agreement, the Irish Republican Army has thrice opened arms dumps to Gen. John de Chastelain, the former head of the Canadian armed forces and head of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning, which is tasked with verifying that all paramilitary organizations put their weapons beyond use. On each of those three occasions Gen. De Chastelain stated that significant amounts of weaponry, including automatic weapons and explosives, had in fact been put beyond use by the IRA. The same cannot be said of the loyalist paramilitary organization, the Ulster Defense Assn., which continues to organize attacks on innocent Catholics.

The IRA, which has maintained its cease-fire in the face of extreme provocation, has not even been on the U.S. Secretary of State’s list of terrorist organizations for several years. It has stated numerous times that it will continue to give the peace process room to succeed. Until international pressure includes addressing those paramilitary organizations, like the UDA, that refuse to move into the future, it will be very difficult, if not impossible, “to put to rest decades of tumult and bloodshed.”

Michael Kerry

San Luis Obispo