Democratic Unionist Party leader the Rev Ian Paisley said today there had been a "cover-up" in relation to IRA decommissioning and said his party would not be entering into government with Sinn Féin.
Ian Paisley arrives for the meeting with General de Chastelain. Photo:Reuters/Dylan Martinez
Speaking after an hour-long meeting with General John de Chastelain and other members of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD), Mr Paisley said many weapons had fallen into the hands of dissident republican groups.
"Even the security forces admit that some of the weapons that were in the original lists are now given to other dissident organisations, and that is very serious.
"Part of the weapons that should have been decommissioned have disappeared and the security forces admit they are probably in the hands of dissidents.
"The more spotlight is put on this, the more we discover there is a cover-up," Mr Paisley said
Gen de Chastelain said yesterday the IRA's arsenal of weapons, explosives and ammunition has been put beyond use in a massive decommissioning operation that lasted several days.
The Irish and British governments welcomed what they called a landmark development, and Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said the IRA's unprecedented decommissioning was total.
The decommissioning exercise was witnessed by the former president of the Methodist Church, the Rev Harold Good, and Redemptorist priest Fr Alec Reid. They said the process had demonstrated to them that, "beyond any shadow of doubt", the arms of the IRA had been decommissioned.
DUP leader Ian Paisley
But Dr Paisley said his party members "got the greatest surprise of all" during today's meeting when they discovered that improvised weapons were not covered on the intelligence lists.
Mr Paisley said: "These things put a question, a very big question, over what has taken place.
"When we came to any question which could unravel what needs to be unravelled and could put some light on these things, they refused to give us any answers."
On the the Catholic and Methodist churchmen, who acted as independent witnesses to decommissioning, Mr Paisley said: "They were the IRA's nominated witnesses.
"The gun is not out of Irish politics," Dr Paisley said, as he made clear his party will not be pressed into forming a government with Sinn Féin.
Asked whether he could see himself in government with Sinn Féin, he said: "We will not be doing it." He said he represented the people and it would be the people who decided whether republicans would be in government.