A series of concerted measures that will lead to a significant scaling down of the security presence in Northern Ireland and to more than 20 republican paramilitary escapers being allowed to avoid any return to prison have been announced.
The Northern Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, the RUC Chief Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, and British army chiefs made separate announcements of the measures yesterday, which, the security situation permitting, also include a possible reduction in British troop levels in the North by 5,500.
The DUP claimed these initiatives were part of a British government "political agenda" designed to protect the Belfast Agreement and to prop up Mr David Trimble as he faced a potential leadership challenge.
The former DUP minister, Mr Nigel Dodds, said there was an "obvious choreography" to the announcements. He predicted it would lead to a further inspection of IRA arms dumps but said this would not be sufficient to secure Mr Trimble's leadership of the Ulster Unionist Party.
The announcements came as anti-agreement Ulster Unionist Mr Jeffrey Donaldson formally called on the officer board of the party to convene a meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council to vote on a motion that the Executive should be suspended if the IRA does not decommission.
"Given the substantial evidence of IRA involvement in the gun-running plot from Florida, our position in the Executive is unsustainable. It is absolutely essential we review our policy. Speculation about leadership challenges at this stage is just speculation. This meeting will be about policy, nothing else," said Mr Donaldson.
The FBI said it had not confirmed statements made during the Florida criminal trial of Conor Claxton that his activities in the US "were known or sanctioned by the highest levels of the IRA".
Mr Mandelson's prisoners announcement means high-profile IRA escapers such as Brixton escaper Nessan Quinlivan; Liam Averill, who escaped from the Maze dressed as a woman; Dermot Finucane - brother of murdered Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane - and 1983 Maze escapers including Kevin Barry Artt would be allowed return to Northern Ireland.
His ruling does not apply to escapers who were on remand. This means former Fermanagh South-Tyrone MP Owen Carron would not qualify, as he was on bail on a firearms charge when he went on the run in 1986. In all, 21 escapers will qualify.
Mr Mandelson said this was not an amnesty. "It is clearly anomalous to pursue the extradition of people who appear to qualify for early release under the Good Friday agreement scheme and who would, on making a successful application to the Sentence Review Commissioners, have little if any of their original prison sentence to serve," he said.
The RUC Chief Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, also announced that six British army bases along the Border in Co Fermanagh were to be demolished.
The chief constable also said the RUC Strand Road holding centre in Derry is to be closed from tomorrow, and that the Long Kesh army base beside the Maze is to be demolished. In addition, land used by the army and RUC in Newtownhamilton in south Armagh is to be returned to its owners.
But amid security reports that the "Real IRA" threat is increasing along the Border near south Armagh, and because of continuing loyalist violence, Sir Ronnie said the RUC Gough holding centre in Co Armagh would not be closed. He added, however, that solicitors would in future be allowed to be present at Gough barracks during interviews of paramilitary suspects.
A British army spokesman said this latest "normalisation" exercise meant that it had closed or demolished 41 military bases and installations since 1995, and that the number of troops deployed in the North was now 13,500, the lowest since 1970. At the height of the Troubles, there were 30,000 British soldiers in Northern Ireland.
The army said its "aspiration" was to reduce the number of military bases from 64 to "no more than 20", and to reduce the number of troops by 5,500 overall.
