Three days later, the British government announced a two-year plan to slash the number of British troops stationed in Northern Ireland. The plan is to have “a permanent military garrison of no more than 5,000 members” operating from 14 bases, said Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain.

The IRA, which has maintained a cease-fire since 1997, instructed its volunteers to pursue “purely political and democratic programmes through exclusively peaceful means.” It announced that its units would dump their arms while maintaining a goal of uniting Ireland, but that “there is now an alternative way to achieve this and to end British rule in our country.”

In October 2002 the British government suspended the elected Northern Ireland assembly, and has been insisting that it not be reestablished until the IRA completely and publicly disarms. The assembly first came into being as a result of a 1998 accord between Irish republicans, pro-British Unionists, Dublin, and London.

Should the assembly be reconvened, Sinn Fein, which is now the largest Irish nationalist party, would likely be part of its executive body.

The day after the IRA’s statement, the British army began dismantling military posts in the border territory of South Armagh. The British rulers have 12,000 soldiers in Northern Ireland, down more than 7,000 from 1998, and are keen to free some more up to be deployed elsewhere.

“The IRA statement must now be followed by actions demonstrating the republican movement’s commitment to the rule of law,” stated U.S. president George Bush. Washington had taken its distance from earlier attempts by British officials to work with the Irish republicans after three alleged IRA members were arrested in Colombia in August 2001 on charges of training anti-government guerrillas in that South American country.

While London and Washington will be closely monitoring the IRA’s disarmament pledge, “they have not demanded disbandment. Such a commitment would be a historic move,” noted a July 28 Financial Times article.

Meanwhile, a third man has been murdered in recent weeks as part of an armed feud between rightist paramilitary groups that support continued British rule.

Earlier in the week, hundreds of Ulster Volunteer Force members had descended on a Belfast housing estate, forcing out families associated with the rival Loyalist Volunteer Force. These two rightist gangs, together with the Ulster Defense Association, “have commited more violence than the IRA in recent years,” noted a Washington Post article.  
 
 
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