Garda says it knows sites of most IRA weapon dumps

Henry McDonald, Ireland editor Sunday May 4, 2003 guardian.co.uk-The Observer

Irish police can now pinpoint most of the IRA arms dumps in the Republic, The Observer can reveal.

The sites of 75 per cent of the secret hides containing tonnes of guns and explosives are known to the Garda Siochana. But a senior officer told The Observer this weekend that political considerations prevent the force from digging for the arsenals.

The hidden arms, which include surface-to-air missiles and tonnes of Semtex explosive, has become one of the main obstacles in the Irish peace process, with unionists demanding that the IRA decommission its arsenal.

The revelation that the security forces in the Republic know the whereabouts of the 'super dumps' comes after the Ulster Defence Association handed over a number of bombs to police in north Belfast yesterday. Eight pipe bombs were left for the police to collect in the loyalist Tigers Bay around midday.

The homemade bombs belonged to the UDA's so-called North Belfast Brigade. Made from industrial piping, packed with nails, ball bearings and iron filings and set off with a lit fuse, similar bombs have been used in sectarian rioting and the intimidation of Catholics in the area over the last five years.

The UDA leadership said it had handed over the pipe bombs to lower communal tensions in the run-up to Ulster's marching season. It also said the move was to assure the public of its commitment to the John Gregg initiative, 'which promises to work for better conditions for loyalists, especially those living in interface areas'. The initiative is named after the UDA terrorist killed by allies of Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair in a loyalist feud this year.

But the UDA ruled out any more acts of decommissioning as a means of exerting pressure on the IRA to follow suit. 'We would emphasise that this action is not construed as an act of decommissioning. The UDA assures the loyalist people of north Belfast that we will remain their last line of defence.'

A spokesman for the UDA's political wing, the Ulster Political Research Group, welcomed the move.

Speaking in Tigers Bay, Sammy Duddy, the UPRG spokesman, said: 'We think it's a very positive move. People on interface areas have suffered enough. If the nationalists would only take a similar line, there would be no interface violence.'

The rift between Sinn Fein and the Irish government widened yesterday after a Dublin Cabinet Minister called on the IRA to be clearer about ending their 'war'.

Speaking in Armagh City after a meeting with local SDLP activists, Irish Minister Dermot Ahern said: 'Tony Blair shared the Irish government's view that the IRA were only a whisker away. We now need to look at where we are and move forward by pressing for clarification on the final point. If the original IRA statement had_ clearly stated an end to paramilitary activity, there would have obviously been no need for clarification.'

Following the decision to postpone this month's Assembly elections, Gerry Adams launched an attack on Irish Justice Minister Michael McDowell. The Sinn Fein president said he had no confidence in McDowell's ability to negotiate with the British Government. 'I wouldn't send him out for a bottle of milk,' Adams jibed as relations between republicans and the Irish government soured at the end of last week.

Despite the row there is no prospect that the Irish government will sanction moves to raid the IRA arms dumps, which are stretched across the Republic from Co Kerry in the south to Meath and Louth. Bertie Ahern's government prefers to persuade the republicans that their weapons have become a dead weight around Sinn Fein's political ambitions.

A senior Garda officer told The Observer last week that a recent intelligence breakthrough had helped the force locate up to 75 per cent of the IRA's arms hides. 'Moving on those is a political matter and the politics at the moment means there will be no drive against them. The only way I could see them being raided is if there was a return to violence by the Provos, which is now extremely unlikely.'

The officer declined to go into detail about the latest intelligence boost, but it is understood that it came from informants seeking a deal with the Irish government.

He said there was additional intelligence that the IRA was planning to dispose of its Semtex in a deal with narco-terrorists in Colombia. The Irish police have established that the IRA explored the possibility of shipping out Semtex to the left-wing Farc guerrillas via Venezuela in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Three IRA suspects are accused in Bogotá of training Farc to build homemade weaponry, including mortar bombs and rockets. The trial of the trio, who include the IRA's head of engineering Jim Monaghan, will reopen in June.

Tony Blair will face angry protests when he arrives in Dublin for a summit with Bertie Ahern to discuss the political deadlock in the North. Sinn Fein is organising a demonstration in the capital against Britain's decision to shelve elections until the autumn.