A letter from Doug and Elaine Baker in Northern Ireland
July 1, 2009
Northern Ireland loyalist paramilitary groups decommission weapons
Canadian General John de Chastelain, head of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning has confirmed that two of Northern Ireland’s Loyalist paramilitary groups, the UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) and the Red Hand Commando, have put their weapons and explosives totally and irreversibly beyond use. The third main Loyalist group, the UDA (Ulster Defence Association), has started the process of verifiable decommissioning of its illegal weapons. It is understood that General de Chastelain and a number of independent witnesses watched the act of UVF decommissioning in the past week.
In 1998, the British and Irish governments and 10 Northern Ireland political parties signed the Belfast Peace Agreement, which was meant to bring an end to decades of civil violence referred to as “The Troubles.” One aspect of that agreement called for the decommissioning of all illegal weapons within two years. However, given the secret nature of their illegal membership neither Republican nor Loyalist paramilitaries were “officially” present at the talks that led up to the agreement. Therefore, the paramilitaries made no effort to abide by this. Instead, the various political parties pledged to use their influence to obtain decommissioning by the paramilitaries within a two-year target period.
That two-year target came and went without any of the paramilitaries making such a move, and although their guns were mostly silent, the lack of progress on actual decommissioning remained a stumbling block in the journey of building trust between different political blocs in Northern Ireland. Both Republican and Loyalist paramilitaries also sought to use their weapons as bargaining chips for further concessions from the British government and their political rivals within Northern Ireland.
Eventually, amid increasing international pressure, in 2005 the IRA (Irish Republican Army) did put the bulk of its weapons permanently beyond use in a process witnessed by neutral observers. (Some of its weapons, however, had passed to “dissident Republican splinter groups” opposed to the Belfast Agreement.)
Distrustful of Republicans, who they believed might still pose a threat to their communities, and reluctant to lose power within their own areas, Loyalist paramilitaries held on to their weapons. They also hoped to gain further concessions from the British government or some economic investment reward for their communities in exchange for complying with demands for decommissioning. However, rather than achieving that end they faced an August deadline for significant progress on Loyalist arms by Secretary of State Shaun Woodward. (Many would also argue that Loyalists held on to their weapons because they were afraid of each other. Over the years there have been bloody feuds between various paramilitary groups and even factions within the same group.)
There is no such thing as complete verifiable decommissioning in a conflict such as this. There is no precise inventory of what weapons any paramilitary group had and no way that every individual member has handed over each and every gun to those responsible within their own organization for seeing that they are put beyond use. However, it would appear that the vast bulk of both Republican and Loyalist weapons are finally gone, and the paramilitary groups themselves have been or are in the process of standing down. This is something to be welcomed, but it has come far too late. Between them, the UDA and UVF killed almost 1,000 people during the Troubles, most of them civilians from the Irish/Nationalist/Catholic section of this divided community.
Although deep divisions remain, most senior leaders in the paramilitaries and in the political groups which have supported them recognize that there is no place for guns and violence in the new society being built in Northern Ireland.
It is widely understood that help came from a most unlikely source, as loyalists edged further down the path to peace and decommissioning. Martin McAleese, the husband of the Irish president Mary McAleese, has been working behind the scenes with Loyalist groups as they dealt with the weapons issue. He helped persuade hard-line Loyalists that they had nothing to fear from the peace process in general and the Dublin establishment in particular.
In terms of the overall peace process, this decommissioning is another key piece of the jigsaw falling into place — and therefore to be welcomed.
Racist attacks in Belfast
Sadly, the same week that Loyalists made huge steps forward in decommissioning, over 100 Romanians fled their south Belfast homes following days of racial intimidation and attack. An independent church opened their hall to house them overnight, and government departments acted swiftly to provide longer-term temporary accommodation. Politicians from many parties and other religious and civic leaders spoke out against the attacks, but the experiences had instilled such fear in the Romanians that in spite of those interventions all but a handful of these recent immigrants chose to return to Romania rather than stay in Northern Ireland.
Much works remains to be done — on many fronts — in terms of reconciliation.
Doug Baker
The 2009 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 171
