Seventeenth report of the Independent Monitoring Commission

This report, on the continuing activities of paramilitary groups, focuses mainly on the six month period of 1 March to 31 August 2007.

With the decommissioning of arms by the Provisional IRA (PIRA) and the entry of Sinn Fein into government in Northern Ireland, the report contains less than normal on PIRA, which appears fully committed to the political path.The Commission finds that several dissident republican groups remain involved in serious criminal activity and are capable of greater levels of violent and other crime.

The picture with loyalist groups is mixed. Encouragingly, the Ulster Volunteer Force has announced its intention to renounce violence and transform itself from a military to a civilian organisation, and the signs are that this process is under way.The Ulster Defence Association (UDA), however, has been responsible for the bulk of loyalist assaults and other criminal activity.

It is also an organisation experiencing internal turbulence with a number of confrontations between the leadership and so-called breakaway factions.

The report also contains statistics on the incidence of violence.