Republican News · Thursday 17 October 2002

Loyalist feud latest

BY FERN LANE

The LVF has issued a statement in an attempt to bring the current loyalist feud to an end. The feud, which began in September, has led to at least nine shootings and three deaths. It began with the killing of LVF member Stephen Warnock in Newtownards. The UDA denied any involvement in the shooting and Johnny Adair and his associate John White were expelled from the organisation after attending the funeral of Warnock. Adair was reported to have fled to Scotland in fear for his life.

The LVF retaliated by attempting to kill Jim Gray, a senior UDA man, who was shot in the face but survived. Then Geoffrey Gray, 41, was shot dead at Ravenhill Avenue.

The latest casualty is 22-year old loyalist Alexander McKinley, who was shot in the head in the Woodstock Road area of East Belfast on Monday last week and died of his wounds on Sunday. Shortly before the incident, a gunman opened fire on another unnamed man who was walking through the Beersbridge Road area.

On Friday, loyalists also attempted to kill a man in Church Street, Bangor, as he answered a knock on the door in the early hours of the morning. He was hit in the stomach and chest when the gunman fired through the glass pane of the door but survived.

Although the LVF have indicated that they want to bring the feud with the UDA to an end, their statement issued to the BBC last Friday says that the group reserves the right to "protect" its members. The statement does not clear the East Belfast UDA of involvement in the killing of Stephen Warnock, a move which senior UDA men had said was a prerequisite to any mediation between the two groups.

On Tuesday last week, loyalist leaders took part in talks with members of the Protestant clergy on the Loyalist Commission. It is not clear what the outcome of these negotiations was, but the episode makes life for nationalists in Belfast, particularly the interface areas, even more fraught than it is already, as the traditional means for loyalist to end their frequent falling-outs is to embark on the random killing of Catholics.