Statement: INA Chairman calls for IMC to be scrapped.

Published: 2 May, 2006

In a statement, Irish Northern Aid Chairman, Paul Doris has called for the immediate disbandment of the International Monitoring Committee, the body set up by the British and Irish Government to report on paramilitary activity in the north of Ireland.

Responding to the release of the 10th report of the IMC, which British PM, Tony Blair claimed was the most positive so far, Doris said,  “even though the IMC has for the first time given a favorable report on Republicans, we give the IMC no credence whatsoever. The IMC is not part of the GFA, which the parties agreed to and the electorate overwhelmingly voted for, is not answerable to anyone, and receives its information from those opposed to democracy and the equality agenda.

“The IMC report is littered with its now customary ‘hear say’ allegations fed it by Securocrats within British intelligence services whose war with Irish Republicans has still not been declared over.  

“It contradicts the assessment on total IRA decommissioning by the only committee sanctioned under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, the IICD led by General John de Chastelain, and is at variance with the conclusions arrived at by senior officers in the Garda Siochána who said “what they regard as reliable sources in relation to the IRA and its weaponry, have produced no intelligence suggesting any arms have been retained.

“The IMC are the alibi for those determined to resist political change in Ireland.  The continuing existence of this unelected quasi-intelligence body undermines the democratic process and the campaign to restore the assembly and political institutions established by the GFA.  They should be dismantled immediately,“ Doris said.  ENDS