IRA Says It Will Disarm

Orders Clandestine Units To Place Weapons In Arms Dumps

(CBS/AP)  The Irish Republican Army announced Thursday it will renounce violence and resume disarmament in a dramatic declaration designed to revive Northern Ireland's peace process.

The IRA said all of its clandestine units have been ordered to place their weapons in arms dumps and cease all activities, effective at 4 p.m. (11 a.m. EDT), but would not formally disband.

“The leadership has formally ordered an end to the armed campaign,” the IRA said in a major advance from its opened-ended truce in place since 1997.

“All volunteers have been instructed to assist the development of purely political and democratic programs through exclusively peaceful means. Volunteers must not engage in any other activities whatsoever,” the IRA command said in remarks addressed to the group's approximately 500 to 1,000 members.

The IRA statement said John de Chastelain, a retired Canadian general who since 1997 has been trying to persuade the IRA and other illegal groups to disarm, would be invited to decommission more hidden weapons bunkers soon. It said a Catholic priest and Protestant minister would be invited to witness the scrapping of weapons.

The IRA also appealed to Britain and Northern Ireland's Protestant majority to accept its new position as sufficient to renew negotiations on power-sharing, the core goal of the 1998 peace accord for this British territory.

Protestant leaders, deeply suspicious of IRA motives, warned in advance they would wait several months to test whether the IRA's words proved true. They noted that the IRA was supposed to have disarmed fully by mid-2000 as part of the Good Friday accord, but didn't start the process amid total secrecy in late 2001 and stopped in 2003.

Aileen Smythe of the CBS News Political Unit reports that following the announcement to disarm, Sinn Fein deputy leader Martin McGuinness was on Capitol Hill, highlighting America's contribution and support in the island's struggle towards a true peace.

He remarked that former President Clinton, who was very involved in the 1998 Good Friday accord, telephoned him last night to lend his support and words of wisdom.

"He was very excited and enthused," said McGuinness.