Britain closes military installations in Ireland

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- The British army began closing or demolishing military installations in the Irish Republican Army's rural heartland Friday in a rapid response to the IRA's declaration to renounce violence and disarm.

Soldiers started to dismantle or withdraw from three positions in South Armagh, a rebellious borderland nicknamed "bandit country," where soldiers still travel by helicopter because of the risk of IRA dissidents' roadside bombs.

The move came a day after IRA commanders directed their units to dump their weapons and use "exclusively peaceful means" from now on.

The breakthrough was the product of a two-year diplomatic showdown between the IRA and its allied Sinn Fein party, and the British, Irish and U.S. governments, which demanded the IRA's full disarmament and disbandment -- in effect if not in name.

Britain, which paroled an IRA mass murderer Wednesday as part of the emerging new agreement, also agreed to close down an army base in the South Armagh village of Forkhill; a hilltop tower near Camlough Mountain with commanding views of surrounding hamlets and roads; and a tall tower in Newtownhamilton, the only South Armagh village with a substantial Protestant minority. Lt. Gen. Sir Reddy Watt, who commands the British army's 12,000-member force in Northern Ireland, confirmed the military cutbacks. Watt said he and Chief Constable Hugh Orde, commander of the Northern Ireland police, "have decided that a further reduction in security profile is possible."

The British army has already withdrawn more than 7,000 soldiers and closed more than three dozen installations since 1998, but paused the gradual process in recent months to await the IRA's next move.

With Friday's cutbacks, seven watchtowers along the South Armagh border with the Irish Republic will remain -- half the number in place in 2001. One tower already dismantled had monitored activities at the farm and fuel-smuggling base operated by Thomas "Slab" Murphy, the IRA's reputed chief of staff.

The hilltop posts allow troops to monitor movements on roads and eavesdrop on conversations with the use of high-powered directional microphones, and are despised by Catholic locals as fostering a "Big Brother" atmosphere in their tight-knit, closed communities.

In April 2003, Prime Minister Tony Blair specified that if the threat from the IRA and dissident groups ended conclusively, Britain's permanent peacetime garrison in Northern Ireland would fall to 5,000 troops operating from 14 bases across this territory of 1.7 million people.

In Thursday's statement, the IRA said its representative would reopen talks immediately with John de Chastelain, a retired Canadian general who since 1997 has been trying to disarm the IRA and Northern Ireland's myriad other outlawed gangs.

The IRA said it hoped to complete the disposal of its weapon stockpiles "as quickly as possible" and would allow Catholic and Protestant clergy to witness the disarmament work. The IRA surrendered unknown amounts of arms in 2001, 2002 and 2003 amid total secrecy, fueling Protestants' suspicions they were being conned.

And Protestant politicians condemned the British authorities' rapid reward for the IRA words, noting that the police still aren't able to operate without military backup in South Armagh.

"It's criminally irresponsible of the government to do this, given what has gone on in those border areas," said Arlene Foster, a negotiator for the Democratic Unionist Party, which represents most of the province's British Protestant majority. "The government seems quite happy to act on words alone."

But Conor Murphy, a former IRA member who is Sinn Fein's member of the British Parliament for South Armagh, said its residents "have lived with the negative effects of military occupation for too long." He said Friday's military retreat "must be built upon in the days and weeks ahead."

The British, Irish and American governments have stressed that the central goal of Northern Ireland's Good Friday peace accord of 1998 -- a stable Catholic-Protestant administration -- cannot be achieved unless the IRA disappears as a threat to Northern Ireland stability.

All three governments have grown increasingly impatient with the Sinn Fein-IRA movement since 2002, when a moderate-led coalition collapsed amid chronic arguments over IRA activities and weaponry. Sinn Fein had two of 12 posts in that coalition, but would be the major Catholic part of any future coalition because of its growing vote.

The IRA had been observing a cease-fire since 1997 but reserved the right to abandon the truce, which also contained many loopholes for violent activity. Thursday's statement changed that, as IRA commanders "formally ordered an end to the armed campaign" and instructed members to avoid all violent activities.