Pro-British paramilitary forces on Saturday completed an historic step in the Northern Ireland peace process by scrapping their weapons in front of independent witnesses.
The moves, confirmed by the British and Irish governments, underscored commitment across the sectarian divide to ending violence, but did not remove a threat from hard-line splinter groups operating on both sides.
“The struggle has ended,” said the Ulster Defense Association, which has also begun to fully decommission arms. “Peace and democracy have been secured and the need for armed resistance has gone.”
An Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) statement was read to reporters in Belfast by a man representing the UVF and the Red Hand Commando (RHC) and wearing an ordinary suit, a change from when paramilitary spokesmen addressed the media wearing masks and toting guns.
‘BEYOND USE’
“The leadership of the Ulster Volunteer Force and Red Hand Commando today confirms it has completed the process of rendering ordnance totally and irreversibly beyond use,” the UVF and the RHC statement said.
The UVF killed more than 540 people during 30 years of conflict with pro-Irish nationalists.
Northern Ireland has enjoyed relative peace since a 1998 deal ended the predominantly Catholic Irish Republican Army’s (IRA) military campaign to end British control of Ireland.
“In recent years, loyalist organizations have been making effective progress towards conflict transformation, and today is an important landmark in this process,” Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said.
UNDER PRESSURE
Mainly Protestant military organizations that want to keep Northern Ireland within the UK have been under pressure for years to get rid of arms, following the IRA’s decision to dispose of its weapons in 2005.
“The leadership of the UVF and RHC have delivered on what they said they would do,” said Shaun Woodward, British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, confirming the UVF and RHC had completed decommissioning in cooperation with the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning.
In Washington, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton welcomed the move.
“The announcements underscore the remarkable progress that has taken place in Northern Ireland over the years,” Clinton said in a statement. “All parties agree, as the people of Northern Ireland do, that the only way forward is through peace and reconciliation and not through violence.”
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS