 Its objective was to facilitate the decommissioning of firearms, ammunition and explosives.Into late 2001, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) was reluctant to disarm.The IRA refused to disarm because they said that the British government had reneged on its side of the bargain, by watering down the reforms of the Royal Ulster Constabulary proposed by the Patten Commission, and by failing to pull troops out of Northern Ireland.