The IRA is continuing to eschew violence and criminality, while loyalist paramilitaries have lost the "political alibi" they used to try to justify their illegal operations, the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) has reported.
The IMC, in its 15th report published in Dublin yesterday, said the IRA was not engaged in terrorist activity and while some individual members were involved in crime, this was contrary to the instructions of the leadership.
The organisation was committed to the political path, it said, less than two weeks ahead of Tuesday, May 8th, when DUP leader the Rev Ian Paisley is scheduled to lead a powersharing government with Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness.
DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson said in response: "The latest report from the IMC confirms the progress which has been made by republicans in terms of meeting normal democratic standards.
"This progress is particularly welcomed by unionists who have long wished for this to happen, and it must be noted that progress has only come about as a result of firm and consistent pressure applied by the DUP."
The IMC said dissident republicans continued to pose a threat and that while there were indications the UVF, Red Hand Commando, and UDA were moving away from violence and criminality, the pace was too slow.
While there is speculation of an imminent UVF statement of its future peaceful intentions, and while the UDA leadership is also purportedly moving in a similar direction, the IMC said loyalist paramilitaries must put their reputed intentions into action. "Since the developments in republicanism, the political alibi loyalist paramilitaries claimed has gone, and they cannot make any argument for paramilitary activity and the retention of weapons.
"Unless the leadership can deliver results in the very near future we will be forced to the conclusion that they are either unwilling or unable to bring about real change," the four IMC members said in their report.
It was now essential for the loyalists to replicate what the IRA did, they added. "Loyalist paramilitaries - and this applies as much to the UVF as to the UDA - cannot argue that they are acting in defence of their own communities. Still less can they say that it is on behalf of those communities that they extort money from local businesses, drive away investment, poison young people with drugs and intimidate citizens. If their leaderships do not demonstrate that they are capable of implementing fundamental change very quickly it will show that their organisations are no more than ill-controlled and violent criminal gangs, which should expect to be treated as such," the IMC said.
In relation to the Loyalist Volunteer Force, the IMC said that "those using the LVF name are primarily a criminal concern without any coherent political purpose".
The IMC said the support of the IRA was an "important factor" in the Sinn Féin special ardfheis in January endorsing the PSNI. "We see this as clear evidence of the commitment, efforts and clearly expressed decisions of the leadership of the movement as a whole to pursue the political path and of their effective management of the strategy," said the commissioners.
