IRA Weapons Proposal Called Positive Step

BELFAST, Northern Ireland —  The Irish Republican Army’s decision to put its weaponry “beyond use” drew praise from Sinn Fein’s chief negotiator Sunday.

“We are moving forward, hopefully to new times, and there is a real opportunity now for politicians--unionist, loyalist, nationalist and republican--to build a new future for all our people,” said Martin McGuinness, deputy leader of the IRA-allied Sinn Fein party and its chief negotiator. “I think we are going to get there.”

British Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson said the pledge was a major step forward.

“That is the jump we were looking for and hoping for,” Mandelson said. “It is a real, historic chance for Ireland. I don’t think these are conditions that we are going to be able to reproduce in the future if we don’t seize this opportunity now.”

The IRA has always rejected disarmament as equivalent to surrender. But the kind of disarmament now being offered would not require the IRA to hand over weapons publicly, only to identify the locations of its secret stockpiles.

Although many details of the fate of the arms dumps still have to be worked out, Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble gave a cautious welcome to the IRA’s pledge Saturday to reveal their locations to two international inspectors.

“I would caution people against throwing their caps up in the air,” said Trimble, the senior minister in Northern Ireland’s suspended Protestant-Roman Catholic administration. “We want to be sure that this is a process, not just a token gesture.”