The new commission monitoring paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland and the Belfast Agreement could help boost public confidence, the British government claimed today.
The four-member body of political and intelligence experts was welcomed when it came into operation at lunchtime today by the Northern Ireland Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy.
Mr Murphy said: "It will play an important part in helping to provide assurance to the people of Northern Ireland that the necessary moves towards a genuinely peaceful and democratic society and stable democratic government are real and permanent."
The Independent Monitoring Commission was proposed by the Irish and British governments last May following unionist concerns about Sinn Fein occupying devolved government posts while the IRA remained active.
The Commission members are former Northern Ireland Assembly Speaker Lord Alderdice, Mr John Grieve, who was the former head of the Metropolitan Police's anti-terrorist squad, retired Irish civil servant Mr Joe Brosnan, and Mr Richard Kerr, a former deputy director of the CIA in the US.
The commission will report on IRA and loyalist paramilitary activity every six months and also scrutinise the programme of scaling down the British army presence in Northern Ireland. It will also look at complaints about tactics used by parties to undermine stability of the political institution during devolution.
Mr David Trimble's Ulster Unionists have welcomed the setting up of the IMC but the Rev Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionists, which became the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly during November's election, has been sceptical.
The SDLP said yesterday that it believed the commission could be useful but were concerned about proposals for excluding parties from the government of Northern Ireland if they are found in breach of the Belfast Agreement.
Sinn Fein today criticised the IMC, with senior negotiator Mr Alex Maskey insisting it ran contrary to the terms of the Belfast Agreement.
PA