Report on the Second Inspection of IRA weapons dumps by President Martti Ahtisaari and Mr Cyril Ramaphosa, 26 October 2000

Report on the Second Inspection of IRA Weapons Dumps
by
President Martti Ahtisaari and Mr Cyril Ramaphosa
26 October 2000

This is a report of our second inspection of IRA weapons dumps.

We reiterate that our mandate as Weapons Inspectors is to inspect the contents of a number of IRA arms dumps and to report to the IICD that we have done so, and to re-inspect these dumps regularly to ensure that the weapons have remained secure.

The terms of reference of our appointment are set out in a joint statement issued by the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach and a statement by the leadership of the IRA on 6 May 2000.

In its statement of 6 May, the IRA leadership pledged to initiate a process that will completely and verifiably put IRA arms beyond use in the context of the statement made by the two governments on 5 May 2000. Besides undertaking to resume contact with the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD), the IRA leadership agreed to put in place within weeks a confidence- building measure to confirm that their weapons remain secure.

We again relied on our consultations with independent specialists in the field of arms control, who had previously participated in arms inspections elsewhere and had expertise in the area of verification. The purpose of these consultations was to help us develop credible methods for inspection and verification.

We have now carried out our second inspection, which took place upon our request. We re-inspected the arms dumps, which we previously reported held a substantial amount of military material, including explosives and related equipment, as well as weapons and other material. The arms dumps had not been tampered with and we confirm that they have remained secure.

We observed that the weapons and explosives continued to be safely and adequately stored. We remain confident that the weapons and explosives cannot be used without our detection.

The IRA has fully honoured their commitments and complied with the terms of our engagement and we are convinced that we will receive the same co-operation in future re-inspections.

We plan to re-inspect the arms dumps on a regular basis and to ensure that the weapons remain secure.