Concern over `re-emergence` of PIRA command structure

The Police Federation for Northern Ireland (PFNI) has expressed its concern over the possible involvement of provisional IRA (PIRA) command structure in a recent murder.

Kevin McGuigan, a former member of the IRA, was shot outside his home in Belfast on Wednesday August 12.

PSNI is investigating whether he was murdered by members of a group called Action Against Drugs (AAD) who it is believed were seeking revenge for the murder of Provisional IRA (PIRA) commander Jock Davison in May.

PSNI believes AAD is an independent group with some members and associates that are, or were, members of the PIRA.

Detective Superintendent Kevin Geddes said: “There has been considerable speculation about motive and responsibility. One of our major lines of enquiry is that members of the PIRA were involved in this murder. I have no information to say at this stage whether this was sanctioned at a command level.”

This is the first time in recent years the PSNI has alluded to the existence of a command structure in the PIRA.

In a statement PFNI Chairman Mark Lindsay said: “This was a deliberate and measured assessment by the PSNI, conscious that every syllable would be placed under the microscope and weighed and analysed.

“It is a very worrying development if a command structure can be activated at will. Our members view developments with great and justifiable concern.”

Clarifying the comments PSNI Chief Constable George Hamilton said some PIRA organisational infrastructure continues to exist but has undergone significant change since the Good Friday agreement was signed in 1998.

“We assess that in the organisational sense the PIRA does not exist for paramilitary purposes. Nevertheless, some of the PIRA structure from the 1990s remains broadly in place, although its purpose has radically changed since this period,” he said.

“Our assessment indicates that a primary focus of the PIRA is now promoting a peaceful, political Republican agenda. It is our assessment that the PIRA is committed to following a political path and is no longer engaged in terrorism.

“We have no information to suggest that violence, as seen in the murder of Kevin McGuigan, was sanctioned or directed at a senior level in the Republican movement.

President of Sinn Fein Gerry Adams said he “did not accept” the PSNI claims about the IRA.

“The war is over. The IRA is gone and not coming back. This has been acknowledged and evidenced over the past 10 years. There is now a peaceful and democratic path to achieve republican objectives.” he said.

“The actions of individual criminal elements or gangs must not be allowed to derail the peace and political process.

“Those individuals who do not embrace this and are pursuing their own agendas do not represent republicanism and should be held to account by the criminal justice system.”