Decommissioning law an amnesty, says Paisley

LEGISLATION being prepared by the Irish and British governments on the decommissioning of weapons was "an entire amnesty to terrorism", the DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, has claimed.

Any guns handed in would be destroyed "and all the evidence with it", he told reporters at the Northern Ireland Forum, adding that proposals for the North were different to the rest of the UK. In legislation for Britain, "the evidence of the handed in weaponry will not be destroyed".

The Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, declined to go into details of the legislation, which he said had been shown to him confidentially, but he said the Mitchell report contained provisions for a "very limited amnesty purely as part of the decommissioning process".

He expected the legislation to be published soon.

The leader of the Ulster Democratic Party, Mr Gary McMichael, said there was nothing new in the proposals and it was questionable whether decommissioning was a realistic objective. His party had discussed the issue last year with the British government and "it was quite clearly accepted that legislation would be required to protect those involved in decommissioning".

Mr Trimble and Dr Paisley gave separate press conferences after a row erupted in the forum when the leader of the UK Unionist Party, Mr Robert McCartney, accused the Ulster Unionist Party of being scared to debate decommissioning. His colleague, Mr Cedric Wilson, said people wanted to know if the UUP was "making secret deals behind closed doors".

Mr McCartney claimed the UUP opposed a move in the forum's business committee to have a debate on decommissioning next week. All the parties in the committee, except the UK Unionists and the DUP, opposed the debate because the issue was "at a sensitive stage" in the talks process.

Mr McCartney insisted on raising the issue at the forum. Abusive remarks were exchanged between some of the parties and when Mr McCartney said he did not "associate with thugs", in apparent reference to Mr McMichael, Ms Monica McWilliams of the Women's Coalition insisted he withdraw his remark.

Mr McMichael described the remarks as "childish" and said Mr McCartney was trying to score political points by raising the decommissioning issue.

Mr Trimble told reporters it was pure fantasy to say that we are running away from decommissioning. We are the only unionist party that is actually carry ing the debate forward on this issue.

"It is we who have insisted throughout that there be progress on the decommissioning issue. We have got to the point of finally persuading the two governments to bring forward their legislation." He also criticised the Irish Government for the "slow pace of progress" on the "very crucial issue" of decommissioning.

Dr Paisley said that under draft legislation, an undertaking would be given that no gun handed in or no evidence from the gun would be permitted to be used in court against any person who is charged with a terrorist crime.

He warned the British government "not to push Northern Ireland and the unionist people any further. If they want an agreement they must change their policies, he said.

He added that if the unionist parties "stick together", they could prevent Sinn Fein's entry into the talks.