Seamus Mallon has said that the issue of demilitarisation has been subject to secret deals. The North's Deputy First Minister said that the IRA and the British government had made the deals. He described this as unfortunate, on RTE Radio, saying that it had created, what he called, a negotiating weakness for the other parties. He said that it was also not possible to know whether or not Sinn Féin was telling the truth when they said that the British government had not delivered on demilitarisation.
Mr Mallon also criticised the stance of the IRA over the decommissioning of weapons. The IRA said yesterday that it was unlikely to move on decommissioning before the 1 July deadline. Mr Mallon said that the IRA was acting in contravention of the will of the Irish people.
