reuters: No sentiment for decomissioning in South Armagh for nytire@ursula; Sat, 12 Feb 2000 02:43:10 -0500 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit feb 9 2000 from PolOTuama@aol.com N.Irish frontier folk icy on IRA disarm demand By Martin Cowley CROSSMAGLEN, Northern Ireland, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Deep in the disputed frontier land of South Armagh, demands for IRA disarmament get short shrift as Northern Ireland's peace process staggers through another political maelstrom. ``Giving up their arms is surrender,'' said a customer sipping a beer in a pub in Crossmaglen in the hardline republican South Armagh region bordering the Irish republic. With the clock ticking towards a Friday climax in the latest crisis, ``decommissioning'' -- or specifically the absence of it -- is the topic that could torpedo peace hopes. Decommissioning is peace process jargon for IRA disarmament. Frantic efforts are under way to resolve the seemingly intractable issue and save gains of the landmark Good Friday accord, which was endorsed overwhelmingly by voters on both sides of the border. Britain, which rules with the support of the province's 60 per cent majority Protestant unionist community, threatens to suspend region's coalition government on Friday if the Irish Republican Army (IRA) does not agree to disarm in line with a key goal of the peace accord of April 1998 ``The general feeling is that the IRA should not give up their arms,'' said Crossmaglen publican Paddy Short. ``Because -- number one, they were not defeated and, number two, the people want the IRA to keep the arms as a deterrent against possiible attacks (by pro-British loyalists).'' Short, who sees Britain's presence in the province as the root of its ills, said that in the past loyalist extremists had attacked several families in the area. IRISH FREEDOM In the windblown square a memorial near a sprawling high walled security base lauds those whose died in the cause of Irish freedom. Walking by, a youth was firmly against any arms handover. ``A lot of people don't think they should,'' said the teenager who works as a bricklayer. ``What's the point in handing in weapons now...they're going to leave us very vulnerable.'' But not everyone thinks that way. Tired of politicians and gunmen, an elderly man clamping his hat to his head in a gathering storm said people wanted the IRA to hand in arms. ``They think it should be over. 3,000 people dead, for what?'' Crossmaglen folk regard the security base as the last outpost of an empire that they never wanted to be part of. Distrust dies hard in South Armagh which was the cutting edge of a relentless armed campaign by the IRA until it halted 30 years of hostilities in 1997 to give peace talks a chance. The town's security base stays heavily fortified -- a stark reminder of the days when the surrounding countryside hid IRA snipers and bombers, giving the region the tag ``bandit country. Troops dart across the town square on patrol carrying radio backpacks and rifles at the ready. They wear soft berets, not combat helmets which were de rigeur when conflict raged. Army watchtowers stand sentinel hilltops. Irish flags made shabby by winter's gales hang limply on lamposts. Defiantly, ``I.R.A.'' is nailed in large wooden letters on telegraph poles and trees on nearby roads. COMMUNITY WANTS PERMANENT PEACE The IRA has always equated disarmament with surrender. Republican sources in Belfast say an arms handover could precipitate a split in the guerrilla army. In earlier generations the IRA emded sporadic hostilities by giving a ``dump arms'' order to activists to put weapons out of action by hiding them in scattered stockpiles. Some security analysts say that, and a voluntary sealing of bunkers to put the weapons ``beyond use,'' is the best that can be hoped for in the future. Unionists want them handed over to and destroyed by a disarmament commission. Short said local people would like to see the Northern Ireland administration working successfully but it would not be the end of the world if it fell. ``They are more interested in peace if they could get it -- and the only people who are disturbing the peace around here are the British army, and that is the long and short of it.'' ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytire-02.12.00-02:43:11-25355