MITCHELL REPORT REJECTS BRITISH DISARMAMENT PRECONDITION <br />


MITCHELL REPORT REJECTS BRITISH DISARMAMENT PRECONDITION

  • 24-01-1996 16:30:00   | Armenia  |  World News
DUBLIN, Jan 24 (AFP) - The international commission on disarming Northern Ireland's paramilitaries rejects London's insistence that illegally held weapons be handed in before all-party talks on the province's future can begin, a newspaper reported here Wednesday. The Irish Independent quoted a leaked copy of the body's final report -- to be published officially later Wednesday -- as stating that paramilitaries will not dispose of their arsenals before talks and this "is the reality with which all concerned must deal". It recommends instead that the pro-united Ireland Irish Republican Army (IRA) and pro-British Protestant paramilitaries should be able to surrender their weapons only during the course of roundtable talks aimed at achieving a final political settlement for Northern Ireland. The commission headed by former US senator George Mitchell handed the 20-page report to the British and Irish governments on Monday. The report concludes that there must be "a clear commitment on the part of those in possession of arms to work constructively to achieve full and verifiable decommissioning as part of the process of all-party negotiations," according to the Irish Independent. Tuesday's Irish Times, quoting sources in Washington, said the commission would also require the IRA's political wing, Sinn Fein, to formally agree to consent of the Ulster population for any institutional change in the province, something Sinn Fein has not yet accepted. rm/jb AFP /AA1234/240311 GMT JAN 96
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