Transparency in the Decommissioning Act dominated the peace process throughout 2004. The Unionists maintained that they would only accept actual decommissioning as the way forward in the peace process.¹ The IRA, however, maintained that visual proof of decommissioning was impossible, as it was a humiliating demand.²

According to IICD chairman John de Chastelain, considerably large amounts of machine guns, explosives, and detonators were destroyed in October. Nevertheless, the Unionist leader John Trimble maintained that a clear, transparent report of major acts was needed.³ Transparency in decommissioning dominated the peace process in Northern Ireland.

After the arrest of IRA suspects in 2001, the 1997 Northern Ireland Arms Decommissioning Act was amended and legally required the Loyalist and Republican groups to put their weapons beyond use under the supervision of the IICD. The amendment was passed on 26 February 2002. The amendment extended the deadline for decommissioning until 27 February 2003 and contained a provision for its annual extension until 2007.⁴

While the IRA seemed committed to decommissioning their weapons, the Unionists were not satisfied. On 1 June 2001, David Trimble resigned as the First Minister. Also, three IRA suspects were arrested in Colombia for allegedly assisting FARC guerrillas. Under tremendous pressure, the IRA announced on 23 October that they had begun a process of putting arms beyond use. Verification of this by the IICD did not satisfy all Unionists, however.⁵

Because no progress was made in terms of decommissioning weapons, the Assembly and the Executive were suspended on 11 February. After protracted negotiations, the IRA allowed two international arms inspectors, the former African National Congress (ANC) negotiator, Cyril Ramaphosa, and the former Finnish president, Martti Ahtisaari, to check that weapons were “completely and verifiably” beyond use.⁶ For the first time, the IRA opened its weapon caches for two international monitors. In their two-page long report to the IICD, the observers said that they observed that the “weapons and explosive were safely and adequately stored”.⁷

The decommissioning did not begin in 1999. After the Hillsborough Declaration of 1 April 1999, efforts to break the stalemate and propose a date for the removal of paramilitary weapons failed. As the process stalled, the government asked Senator George Mitchell to review the peace process. In his report, Mitchell concluded that “devolution should take effect, then the Executive should meet, and then the paramilitary groups should appoint their authorised representatives, all on the same day, in that order”.⁸ Power was devolved in Northern Ireland, the executive was set up, and authorized representatives were appointed on 2 December 1999. In December, the commission had separate talks with representatives of the IRA, the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), and the Red Hand Commando (RHC).⁹

The Good Friday Agreement provided for the establishment of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) to monitor, review, and verify the total disarmament of all paramilitary organizations. The deadline for completing the disarmament was May 2000. The Northern Ireland Arms Decommissioning Act (1997), which received Royal Assent on 27 February 1997, had a provision in Article 7 for the establishment of an independent decommissioning commission. The act was enacted before the accord was signed in 1998. Therefore, the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning was already established when the accord was signed and was headed by Canadian General John de Chastelain.¹⁰ The disarmament, however, did not start in 1998. The Unionists and the Republicans differed on the interpretation of the wording on decommission as the Republicans claimed that they had no formal links with the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and therefore were not in a position to influence the IRA. The decommissioning issue delayed the formation of the power-sharing executive: David Trimble from the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) refused to form the government after the July 1998 elections,¹¹“The Good Friday Agreement — Decommissioning,” BBC News, May 2006, accessed January 31, 2013. http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/schools/agreement/policing/decommis… so decommissioning did not begin in 1998.

The British Army suspended its operation in Northern Ireland starting on 1 August 2007, thus ending a 38-year presence in Northern Ireland. The move reduced the size of the British troops to 5,000, which was compatible with a normal peaceful society as suggested in the peace agreement.¹² The Independent Monitoring Commission also confirmed the cutbacks in British troops in Northern Ireland.¹³

No developments observed this year.

The British government announced its plan to reduce the troops in Northern Ireland in December 2005 by making the total strength less than 9,000 soldiers.¹⁴