Ulster Unionist party member Jeffrey Donaldson has warned the Northern Secretary, Peter Mandelson, against trading off security in the North in return for IRA decommissioning. Mr Donaldson said that the government must not allow the forces of law and order to be placed on the same scales as terrorist organisations. His comments were made amid claims in "Ireland on Sunday" that the IRA offered a three-part plan to resolve the decommissioning issue. These are said to include a declaration from the IRA that the war was over, a day of reconciliation during which arms would be decommissioned by paramilitaries and the British army followed by demilitarisation.
The Ulster Unionist Party Assemblyman, Dermot Nesbitt, claimed that members of his community were beginning to query if the IRA's offer was a confidence trick designed to cause confusion and inflame nationalist opinion over the suspension of the executive. And the leader of the Ulster Democratic Party, Gary McMichael, said if the IRA were to reveal what they said to the commission headed by General John de Chastelain, it could help revive the peace process. He said that the public should be allowed to judge the value of the IRA's plan. Mr McMichael added that full disclosure of the package would clear up any confusion in the wake of last week's suspension by the British government of the Assembly, Executive and north-south institutions.
