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Loyalist terror group UDA to fully disarm before February
Tuesday, 29 December 2009
The UDA is expected to fully disarm before the February deadline set by the Secretary of State, the Belfast Telegraph can reveal.
With General John de Chastelain and his team due back in Belfast next Monday, senior loyalists are predicting that the terror group will complete the |decommissioning process on time.
Recently UDA leaders pulled out of a planned first meeting with Sinn Fein Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness and raised doubts over decommissioning.
A senior paramilitary source pointed to high levels of dissident republican activity and the political standoff over policing and justice.
However, with General de Chastelain and his Independent International Commission on Decommissioning colleagues due back, loyalists are now predicting another arms move.
“It’s going to end up with decommissioning and people moving on well before the deadline,” one well-placed source said.
MPs are likely to want to hear an update during Northern Ireland Questions scheduled for February 3.
And the mandate that allows the IICD to operate ends just six days later on February 9.
Commenting on the expected UDA decommissioning move, a government source said: “I’m hoping they will do it and I’m hoping they won’t renege.”
According to loyalists a meeting with Mr McGuinness will now have to wait until after decommissioning.
This newspaper understands the talks that were planned for December 16 were organised by telephone while senior loyalists, including Jackie McDonald, were in Brussels.
It is understood McDonald was keen to meet the Sinn Fein leader before the pre-Christmas deadline he had set for First Minister Peter Robinson to agree a date for the transfer of policing and justice powers.
However, according to a senior source other loyalists felt they were being “bounced” into those talks without proper consultation and preparation.
“A meeting (with Martin McGuinness) should happen and will happen,” a loyalist told this newspaper.
By the time it does, the UDA should have made its next and final move to complete the decommissioning process.
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One should never undermine disarmament, whether loyalist, or republican. The core issue is whether this is political posturing or a genuine move to give up hate-driven violence.
If this act is compensated by a British government payout to "abide by the law" then it is a farce. Criminal activity should never be negotiable.
Posted by Gusty | 30.12.09, 02:36 GMT
Expected, predicted, hoping they won't renege.
As per usual the high level of certainty in repsect of the actions of loyalist paramilitaries.
Any chance the rag tag leadership of the UDA could come to a concensus and speak for themselves rather than an X-Factor final. Something else bloated and over-blown.
"I know you thought the show would never end but come back to us after the umpteenth break and we useless lot will give you the answer you've lost patience waiting for."
Posted by Ulysses32 | 29.12.09, 13:55 GMT
it all sounds so significant and co-ordinated, but in reality is a farce comprising a series of 'chats' with a bunch of ghetto-based petty criminals.
what a waste of energy and resources - these gangsters will continue to run their grubby little 'regimes' in disadvantaged areas.
Posted by Norman Wilson | 29.12.09, 11:07 GMT