The scale of paramilitary violence in Northern Ireland has been "worryingly high" since the beginning of last year, the first report of the Independent Monitoring Commission has said.
Loyalist paramilitaries have carried out three times as many murders as republicans, more than twice as many assaults and nearly twice as many shootings. Of the 11 murders carried out since January 1st, 2003, eight are attributable to loyalists and two to republicans.
The commission also stated that "some members, including some senior members, of Sinn Féin, are also members, including, in some cases, senior members of \ IRA".
The beating and abduction in Belfast on February 20th of dissident republican Mr Bobby Tohill was an operation "planned and undertaken by the Provisional IRA". The IRA remained active and was well funded by crime. It is in a "high state of readiness", has recently been engaged in "training" and continues to gather intelligence on targets and weaponry.
The four-man commission concluded that Sinn Féin must bear some responsibility for the continuing IRA activity.
Similarly, it stated the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) "has not sufficiently discharged its responsibility to exert all possible influence to prevent illegal activities on the part of the UVF and RHC [Red Hand Commando]".
Arising from this, had the Assembly been functioning, the commission would have recommended a number of measures in relation to Sinn Féin and the PUP, up to and including exclusion from office.
In its report published yesterday it recommended that the Northern Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy, "consider taking action" against both parties in the area of party funding and imposing sanctions on the salaries received by elected representatives of the parties.
Paramilitary-linked organised crime in the North was a vicious circle involving "enormous" sums of money.
Some 88.5 million cigarettes were seized in Northern Ireland between 2001 and 2002. Seizures of counterfeit goods in 2002 had an estimated street value of £7 million (€10.5 million) and detected fuel laundering had cost the British exchequer £90,000 (€135,000) per week. The commission noted it was not in a position to detail more specifically for-profit criminal activities in which republican and loyalist paramilitaries were involved. However, it documented some of this activity under broad headings.
As well as one murder since the start of last year, the acts carried out by the IRA included punishment beatings involving shootings, of which there have been eight so far this year.
One of these resulted in the victim being beaten about the head with pickaxe handles before being shot nine times in the lower legs. The IRA was also heavily involved in the cigarette smuggling trade and in other, unspecified areas of criminality.
Also on the republican side, the "Real IRA" - believed to be "a potentially very dangerous terrorist group" - had been involved in at least one murder since January 1st, 2003. Its main targets continued to be security force personnel in the North, but attacks on targets in Britain would continue to be an objective of the group.
The Continuity IRA remained "potentially dangerous" and was co-operating with the "Real IRA". The INLA was involved in drugs, extortion and other criminality, and "continued to constitute a high threat of re-engagement".
Of loyalists, the commission concluded they were now far more heavily involved than republicans in for-profit crime, shootings and beatings. If the murder, shooting and beating rates in Northern Ireland were replicated in the Republic or the UK it "would cause outrage", the commission said.
Shootings and beatings carried out by loyalists and republicans combined between 1999 and 2002, at 1,119, were nearly double the figure for the four years between 1991 and 1994. Republicans were responsible for more attacks, 513, in the earlier period, compared with 477 for loyalists. However, in the latter period that trend has been significantly reversed, with loyalists responsible for 721 incidents and republicans 398.
The UDA has carried out five murders since the start of last year, more than double the number carried out by any other terrorist organisation.
