Republican News · Thursday 18 October 2001

Reid finally accepts the obvious

UDA ceasefire declared over

BY FERN LANE

After three killings and more than 200 attacks on Catholics in the past year, British Secretary of State John Reid finally declared that the seven-year UDA 'ceasefire' is over. The announcement on Friday 12 October came only after the UDA had been involved in serious clashes with the RUC on the lower Shankill the previous night.

Violence erupted in the area after police raids, which turned up a pipe bomb, ammunition, a timer, three blank firing guns and cannabis worth around £1,000. It would seem, therefore, that UDA attacks on the RUC, rather than the appalling violence inflicted on the nationalist community, prompted Dr Reid to made his decision. The LVF - whose supposed ceasefire was equally non-existent - were also 'respecified'.

In making the announcement, Dr Reid admitted that both the UDA and LVF had "systematically breached their ceasefire". The Secretary of State had been poised to respecify both groups two weeks before but backed down after coming under political pressure, saying that as he had received communication from the UDA (a claim subsequently denied by loyalist spokesmen) that their campaign against Catholics would stop. Loyalists would be given one last chance to prove that their 'ceasefire' was holding. The following night, the LVF shot down journalist Martin O'Hagan. Reid claimed that the UDA, after a brief pause, had resumed its campaign, including its involvement with the Holy Cross protest.

Dr Reid said that the UDA and LVF seemed "determined to spurn the opportunity given to them by the people to make the transition from violence to democracy". He said that the decision would probably not change either the UDA's or the LVF's behaviour, adding that "they may lash out and flaunt their immorality and their contempt for the law. But there is a limit to society's tolerance and that limit has now been reached".

Sinn Féin Assembly member and policing spokesperson Gerry Kelly said the announcement was long overdue. He said John Reid had reneged on his decision to respecify the UDA two weeks ago, when he accepted the "discredited" word of the UDA that they would observe their ceasefire.

"What the British government have done is accept what Catholic victims of the UDA have been telling them for well over a year and accept that they called it wrong two weeks ago," he said. "The UDA are involved in an ongoing campaign against Catholics and are involved in the blockade of Holy Cross School. However, it is worth noting that Mr Reid only took this decision after the UDA attacked members of the RUC."

After the announcement, one UDA leader issued a warning, threatening that if UDA leaders were arrested, "5,000 members will take to the streets and the place will go berserk. There won't be a bus left in Belfast; they'll be burnt. Tony Blair will not just have Osama bin Laden to deal with - Northern Ireland will be out of control".

Since the announcement that they are to be respecified, the UDA have been involved in at least half a dozen further attacks on Catholic homes.

BURNSIDE

Shortly after Reid announced his decision, it was revealed that David Burnside, the extreme Ulster Unionist MP for South Antrim, together with Fred Cobain, Assembly member for North Belfast, had held a secret meeting with UDA and UVF leaders in August. In the face of calls for his resignation from some members of his own party, Burnside insisted that the meeting was "perfectly legitimate", had taken place with the knowledge of David Trimble and that there had been ongoing contact between the UUP and the UDA since the summer. He said that he had told the UDA that that he "didn't believe that violence helped their cause". He did not say that he had told them he thought violence against Catholics was wrong, merely that it was unhelpful.

He also claimed that he and Cobain had been attempting to establish the conditions under which the UDA/UVF would decommission. If true, this claim seriously undermines the UUP's insistence that decommissioning is an absolute requirement and must have no preconditions attached. Such negotiations with the UDA/UVF suggests that the UUP accepts that loyalists can indeed apply preconditions, something it vehemently insists it will not accept of the IRA. Nevertheless, this approach is consistent with the UUP's at best ambiguous, at worst completely schizophrenic attitude to decommissioning.

Burnside said last Thursday (during a speech in which he also advocated that the UUP and DUP should merge) that the party should not accept anything which could be interpreted as "symbolic" by the IRA and that it should in any case force the collapse of the elected Assembly in order to create a more "realistic" model based on that operated in Wales.

Trimble himself has always carefully avoided talking about loyalist paramilitaries when referring to the subject of decommissioning, and has often appeared extremely reluctant to condemn loyalist violence against the nationalist community. His apparent sanctioning of members of his party to engage with the UDA/UVF raises many questions about his claim that the UUP does not deal with paramilitaries. And he does not apparently see any irony, or indeed hypocrisy, in his party relying on the votes of the PUP members of the Assembly - who represent the heavily armed UVF - in its attempts to have Sinn Féin members excluded.