Unionists will not accept any "charade" over IRA decommissioning, the Democratic Unionist leader, the Rev Ian Paisley claimed today.
The North Antrim MP launched a scathing attack on the chairman of the international decommissioning body, General John de Chastelain, in his speech to his party's 30th anniversary conference in Newcastle, claiming the Canadian could not be trusted to oversee IRA disarmament alone.
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"This party will not allow decommissioning to be forgotten," Mr Paisley told the 300 delegates.
"We are not in the business of handing over Ulster's future to a Canadian General who is not accountable to the people of Northern Ireland - a man who has treated the people with contempt.
"But the Ulster people will not tolerate this. They have not been fooled by this charade."
The DUP leader said for 30 years his party had been the "single greatest obstacle to thwarting" plans to take Northern Ireland into a United Ireland.
He attacked Northern Ireland First Minister Mr David Trimble and other Ulster Unionists for "slithering and sliding down the road of deceit and betrayal" during those 30 years.
"They are the defeatists, not prepared to stand and fight but to settle for any terms offered to them by Dublin and the pan-nationalist front," he said.
Rev Paisley said the UUP's decommissioning policy was an "utter failure," with nationalists and republicans receiving an ever-growing lists of concessions.
Mr Trimble, he argued, was "running scared of the ballot box" and he challenged him to face the DUP in an election if he was confident he had the backing of the unionist people.
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