By Brendan Anderson

The IRA has been given a clean bill of health by a body appointed to report on the state of the Republican and Loyalist ceasefires.

However, Loyalist organizations such as the Ulster Defense Association (UDA) and the Ulster Volunteer Force UFV) are still engaged in criminality, according to the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC).

The four-man commission has in the past been accused of working to a political agenda because of the content and timing of some of their reports.

In their 13th report covering September 1 to November 30 last year, the commissioners said the IRA had “continued to dismantle” its organization. The Provisionals, the report said, were not involved in recruitment, training, weapons procurement and development, targeting or attacks.

The commissions said some members had unsuccessfully attempted to “acquire small arms for their own purposes in contravention of the leadership’s instructions.”

They also welcomed Sinn Fein’s endorsement of the North’s policing and justice system as a “major step forward in the IRA’s move away from paramilitarism.”

According to the report, dissident Republicans continued to be active and had formed a new “dangerously active” hard-line group which had launched pipe bomb attacks on police.

The commissioners said the UDA and UVF “needed to accelerate” efforts to move away from criminality and paramilitarism. The groups, they said, were still carrying out racist and sectarian attacks and were involved in crime.

UDA members, the report said, were behind attacks on immigrants and had tried to force some foreign nationals from their homes.

Despite its most positive report on Republicans, the IMC was criticized by Sinn Fein MP Conor Murphy as an unelected quango (quasi-autonomous non-government body) which interfered in politics. Past IMC reports have seen Sinn Fein being financially penalized because of alleged activities of the IRA.

Murphy said Monday it was it was time to “end the negative role played by the IMC and remove the veto it is attempting to exercise over people’s democratic rights and entitlements.

“The IMC operates entirely outside the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. It should have no role in the political process and it should be wound up. The IMC should never again be allowed a say over people’s democratic rights and entitlements,” he said.