LONDON -- The British government said Tuesday the last remaining armed paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland have pledged to decommission all their weapons within six months.
Northern Ireland secretary Shaun Woodward said the Ulster Defense Association and its breakaway unit in South East Antrim both pledged to give up their arms by February 2010, just before a long running amnesty that allows paramilitary groups to give up their weapons without being prosecuted ends.
Other paramilitary groups the Ulster Volunteer Forces and the Red Hand Commando handed over their guns, ammunition and explosives in June.
The decommissioning was overseen by the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning, which was set up in 1997 as part of Northern Ireland's peace process.
The UDA, the major outlawed Protestant group in Northern Ireland, is largely observing a 1994 cease-fire in support of Northern Ireland's 1998 peace accord but remains a menacing criminal presence in Protestant parts of the region.
Woodward said the news that the group will decommission is "hugely significant."
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