Northern Ireland -Protestants scorn IRA disarmament
Belfast — Protestant politicians, rejecting the Irish Republican Army's disarmament as inadequate, said Tuesday that they would not share power in Northern Ireland's government with the IRA's political party Sinn Fein for years – if ever. A day after international weapons inspectors backed by Protestant and Roman Catholic clergymen announced that they had overseen the IRA's full disarmament after eight years of efforts, Rev. Ian Paisley led his deeply skeptical Democratic Unionist Party into talks with the disarmament chief, retired Canadian General John de Chastelain. Mr. Paisley is hoping to get more details on the process. Gen. de Chastelain said Monday that in the past week he had personally inventoried and got rid of a mammoth stockpile of IRA weapons, including surface-to-air missiles. Today's Protestant hard-liners said they would not revive power-sharing until the IRA disbands. Mr. Paisley, whose party holds veto power on reviving power-sharing with Sinn Fein, said the IRA probably had lied to the inspectors and were keeping weapons in reserve. He said the group's insistence on secrecy – including the refusal to allow photographs – showed that they had something to hide. Democratic Unionist legislator David Simpson said international pressure could not force his party, which represents most of the province's British Protestant majority, to co-operate with Sinn Fein, the major Irish Catholic-backed party.
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