Report Says IRA Remains Ready to Fight

Protestant loyalist militias also came in for criticism by the panel for the internecine killing of four members of various factions in the last 14 months.

The report is the fifth issued by the 2-year-old Independent Monitoring Commission, set up by the British and Irish governments to keep track of paramilitary groups that were supposed to disarm under Northern Ireland's 1998 Good Friday agreement.

It "presents a disturbing picture" of ongoing criminal activity, according to a statement by the Irish government.

The report, concluded in April but delayed so it wouldn't affect parliamentary elections held this month, appears to provide new ammunition to Protestant loyalist politicians, including the Rev. Ian Paisley, who say the republican side has failed to live up to its obligations under the 1998 accord to disarm and disband.

The report "is a further vindication of the tough stance" of Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party, said DUP official Nigel Dodds, as quoted by Britain's Press Assn.

Republican spokesmen, however, were quoted as saying the report was little more than a recapitulation of unproven accusations. The commission itself is not impartial and "has little or no credibility," said Alex Maskey, a former mayor of Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland.

The 59-page report asserts that the IRA is covering up the involvement of some of its members in the January slaying of Belfast resident Robert McCartney after a barroom argument. It has also smuggled in large amounts of ammunition and gets money from a string of illegal rackets, including fuel and cigarette smuggling, the report says.

Britain's top official for Northern Ireland, Peter Hain, submitting the commission's report to Parliament, noted that "paramilitary groups continue to be active in violent and other [kinds of] crime, and none have materially wound down their capability."

The republicans seek to unite Northern Ireland with Ireland; loyalists want the province to remain part of Britain.

Dissident republican groups "are the most committed to committing terrorism," said Hain, referring to splinter organizations such as the Real IRA.

"Loyalist groups remain responsible for more violence," Hain said, citing the killings between Protestant factions.