Britain, Ireland Receive IMC Report On Army Council

The British and Irish governments received an expert report Monday on the recent activities of IRA commanders, an issue overshadowing efforts to sustain a power-sharing government in the North.

The Independent Monitoring Commission said its latest report - which focuses on the policies and recent activities of the IRA's seven-man command - was published yesterday (Wednesday).

It will become an immediate focal point for negotiations in Belfast between British Protestant and Irish Catholic politicians.

The commission includes former directors of America's Central Intelligence Agency and Scotland Yard's anti-terror unit.

Since 2004, it has published reports that analyze the operations of the North's several underground groups.

The new report is not expected to identify any member of the IRA command, which the outlawed group calls the "army council."

Nor is it expected to deviate from the experts' broadly upbeat findings since 2005, when the IRA disarmed and renounced violence.

Protestant leaders have demanded the IRA army council disband to demonstrate that the group has no intention of reviving its 1970-97 campaign to force the North out of the United Kingdom.

But previous reports noted that IRA commanders were keeping their underlings in line - and that such control helps to deter defections to IRA splinter groups that continue to plot attacks in the North.