UK aims to slash Irish bases

2005-08-01 17:25

Belfast - Britain revealed a two-year plan on Monday for slashing its army garrison and base network in Northern Ireland in response to Irish Republican Army peace moves.

Northern Ireland secretary Peter Hain said the IRA's promise last week to renounce violence and resume disarmament, if fulfilled, meant Britain could resume and accelerate its military cutbacks.

He said Britain hoped to reduce its troop strength within the next two years to "a permanent military garrison of no more than 5 000 members" operating from 14 bases.

That would be considered a normal level in United Kingdom terms, compared to today's approximately 11 000 soldiers operating from more than three dozen bases and border outposts.

Roadside ambush

Hain noted that army engineers began on Friday to withdraw from three installations in South Armagh, an IRA power base along Northern Ireland's border with the Irish Republic, where troops still used helicopters rather than vehicles because of the risk of a roadside ambush.

He said that engineers this week would start to take down two of the most high-profile army observation posts - one atop the tallest apartment building overlooking Catholic west Belfast, and another overlooking the hard-line Catholic Bogside district of Londonderry, Northern Ireland's second-largest city.

He said within the next few weeks, work would start on dismantling two more South Armagh observation posts, which since the mid-1980s had kept a high-tech eye on local roads and farms using powerful cameras and microphones.

He said all this work would be completed within the next months, while other goals - such as extending the areas where police could patrol without armoured vehicles, and demolishing a watchtower in the Rosemount section of Londonderry - might be held back until the final four-month phase of the two-year plan.

Avoiding violent behaviour

Hain said that all the proposed cuts would depend on the IRA's progress in scrapping its weapons stockpiles and avoiding violent behaviour.

He also warned that the continuing threat from IRA dissidents could require some installations earmarked for closure to remain longer than desired.

Two dissident groups, the Real IRA and Continuity IRA, opposed the IRA's 1997 cease-fire and the IRA's decision last Thursday to declare that truce permanent.

Hain also held out the hope that, if the IRA offered impressive progress on disarmament and peaceful activity, Britain might achieve its military scale down quicker.

Hain said: "Provided the enabling environment is established and maintained, this programme will be achievable within two years, though if the conditions are right to move more quickly in implementing elements of the plan, the government will do so."

- AP