IRA splinter group renouncing violence in Ireland

DUBLIN — The Irish National Liberation Army, an IRA splinter group responsible for some of the most notorious killings of the Northern Ireland conflict, renounced violence Sunday and signaled it could hand over weapons soon to disarmament officials.

Eleven years after calling a leaky cease-fire, the outlawed INLA said it would observe "exclusively peaceful means" and cooperate with Canadian Gen. John de Chastelain, leader of an international commission that oversees the disarmament of underground armies operating in both parts of Ireland. However, the INLA did not explicitly promise to disarm fully nor specify when the secretive process would start.

The INLA-linked Irish Republican Socialist Party made the announcement at its annual parade near Dublin in honor of their movement's founder, Seamus Costello. He was shot to death by an Irish Republican Army member in the capital in October 1977.

The move was widely seen as another shot in the arm for Northern Ireland's largely successful peace process, which already has delivered IRA disarmament and a Catholic-Protestant government in Northern Ireland. INLA officials said the announcement was not timed to coincide with Sunday's visit to Dublin and Belfast by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

British and Irish security officials downplayed the value of words from the INLA, a feud-prone alliance of small gangs that long have turned on each other for control of criminal rackets, including sales of counterfeit goods and smuggled cigarettes.

The IRA-linked Sinn Fein party likewise expressed skepticism that the INLA statement really meant an ironclad commitment to nonviolence.

"However, if it is followed by the actions that are necessary, this is a welcome development," said Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, a former IRA commander who spurred that group to end its 1970-1997 campaign of violence after 1,775 killings.

The INLA killed more than 110 people from its 1974 foundation to its 1998 truce. In the decade since, its members have killed or wounded more than two dozen people, mostly criminal rivals.

Analysts point to two selfish motivations behind the INLA's peace declaration now.

Time is running out for INLA members to hand over guns and explosives without facing arrest and prison time. Britain and Ireland plan soon to end their 12-year-old amnesty from criminal prosecution for militants who surrender weapons to de Chastelain.