Republican News · Thursday 13 February 2003

UDA is a sectarian killing machine... with or without Adair

BY AINE NÍ BHRIAN

Casual observers could be forgiven for thinking that UDA members were part of a legitimate organisation, instead of a sectarian killer gang. The media was addressing UDA leaders respectfully as, "Mr Adair" or "Mr Gregg" and by their self-awarded titles - "Brigadier".

Gosh and golly, what could be tougher than being a unionist paramilitary in "Nor'n Iron" this past week?

On the evening of Saturday, 1 February, as they returned from a Rangers game in Scotland, UDA leader John "Grug" Gregg and another UDA man, Robert "Rab" Carson, were gunned down in a taxi in the Docks area of Belfast. The taxi driver remains in critical condition.

Blame for the Gregg killing immediately fell onto Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair's "C" company, who have been involved in a vicious feud with the mainstream UDA. It didn't matter that Adair was sitting in Maghaberry prison at the time of the shooting. Everyone knew who gave the order.

With this latest brazen act, Adair and his gang had effectively thrown down the gauntlet of loyalist violence in no uncertain terms and all that remained to be seen was who would be left standing after the smoke had cleared.

On Tuesday, 4 February, only days after the Gregg/Carson killing, the ruling UDA leadership issued a statement saying that members of 'C' company had 48 hours to distance themselves from Adair or "face the consequences". If they refused, said the statement, they would be "treated the same as the enemies of Ulster".

Catholic nationalists knew exactly what they meant, and so did the UDA's rank and file.

Remaining UDA companies in West Belfast rushed to their telephones to condemn Adair and his cohorts, saying that they "no longer recognised 'C' Company's current leadership". Members of Adair's own group headed into nearby pubs to formally switch sides and declare their allegiance. Even Adair's allies in the LVF, whom he sided with in the past as a further challenge to his UDA adversaries, washed their hands of the whole mess, saying "the LVF have not and would not become involved in any act connected to this ongoing problem".

Within days of Gregg's killing, the UDA leadership issued a further statement, announcing plans for a mass mobilisation on Adair's home turf in the Lower Shankill the following Saturday. A UDA spokesman was quoted as saying, "this was an act of war, and there will be no hiding place for those responsible".

What was left of Adair's dwindling faction responded with the usual bravado, saying it would meet any attacks with "a measured military response against the aggressors", and that it, in turn, was planning "a street party" for the same day.

Later that night, John White defiantly told a reporter he was "indifferent" to Gregg's killing. "Those who live by the sword, die by the sword," he said.

Infuriated, the rest of the UDA decided not to wait until Saturday for their show of strength. Instead, at about midnight on Wednesday 5 February, they flooded into the lower Shankill.

Hand to hand fighting took place, homes were attacked, shots were fired, and in the ensuing chaos, 'C' Company phoned the PSNI for protection - prompting Chief Constable Hugh Orde to remark that "those who live by the sword, as soon as it starts to get difficult, call the police for help".

Within hours, the remaining Adair gang - including John White, Adair's wife Gina, his children, and other 'C' company allies were packing their bags and fleeing to Scotland under PSNI escort. The violent clash that had been anxiously anticipated became a bloodless coup as the "corporate" UDA re-established its dominance.

While the British tabloids rushed to splash pictures of Johnny Adair's abandoned dogs onto their front pages and think up amusing captions for the morning headlines, the remaining members of Adair's notorious "C" company were sitting in a Scottish hotel, hunched over plates of haggis and looking over their shoulders with every hurried bite.

d so, the latest unionist episode of the Sopranos comes to a temporary close - not with a bang, but a whimper. Within the Six Counties anyway.

"It wouldn't matter if they went to the Mediterranean," a UDA source was quoted as saying. "John Gregg is lying in a coffin and that is a disgrace. It's never over until it's over. There is still work to do."

Over the course of the past several years, infighting within unionist paramilitary groups has led to the deaths of more than a dozen loyalists.

According to PSNI statistics, aside from internal conflicts, unionist paramilitaries were also responsible for 114 shootings and 89 serious assaults in 2002 alone.

Their reign of terror has also resulted in seven dead Catholics (including young Ciaran Cummings and postman Daniel McColgan,) a journalist, (Martin O'Hagan) and several dead Protestants killed in the mistaken belief that they were Catholics - Gavin Brett and David Cupples among them.

However, one of the most disturbing trends that has emerged out of recent events is the way in which the British press has been portraying the UDA and other unionist paramilitaries.

Casual observers could be forgiven for thinking that UDA members were part of a legitimate organisation, instead of a sectarian killer gang. The media was addressing UDA leaders respectfully as, "Mr Adair" or "Mr Gregg" and by their self-awarded titles - "Brigadier".

There was, one might conclude, a "Good UDA' and a "Bad UDA" and by the end of the feud the press seemed content to paint Adair as the bad guy and John Gregg as one of the good ones.

Ulster Political Research Group spokesman Sammy Duddy described Gregg's death as "a terrible waste."

"It is sad when loyalists die in feuds," lamented Duddy. "John Gregg was interested in building bridges not starting feuds."

That was not all John Gregg was interested in.

He, Adair, and the other thugs of the UDA, earned their reputation and status by engaging in vicious sectarian murders and treacherous criminal pursuits such as drug dealing, prostitution and extortion.

The bloody feud that threatened to tear their organisation apart was not about political differences. It was about the UDA reasserting its power and control. It was about money, power and influence.

Indeed, after the speedy Shankill exodus of Adair's gang, Sinn Fein's Gerry Kelly pointedly remarked, "the replacement of one group of sectarian killers and drug dealers with another will do little to benefit the people of the Lower Shankill".

d as republicans know only too well, a reunited UDA does little to reassure nationalists. Historically, every time a split or shake up has occurred within the unionist arena, Catholics die. After all, nothing brings unionist paramilitaries together like a good progrom.

So, as the feud ran its course nationalist politicians in interface areas - like Kelly and Sinn Féin's Gerard Brophy - were already warning their communities to remain vigilant. It wasn't fear mongering. It was common knowledge. The fact is, the UDA was, and remains, a sectarian killing machine. After all, it was set up to kill Catholics. That was its original mandate.

Unionist paramilitaries have always been encouraged to kill Catholics, and they have no qualms about doing so. They have long operated as a covert extension of the physical force of the British state, and were an effective method of instilling fear and terror in the civilian population.

On the same day that John Gregg was buried - the day John White claimed in a telephone call from Scotland that he would soon return to the Six Counties - the Mayor of Belfast, Sinn Féin's Alex Maskey, was being informed by the PSNI that his personal details were in the hands of UDA death squads and his life was again under threat.

d no sooner had things grown quiet in the Shankill then trouble began yet again in interface areas of North Belfast, with an orchestrated attack on the Limestone Road.

Over on the Shankill, another unionist paramiltary was solemnly telling a journalist that "the turnout today was a clear sign that 'C' Company stood for the cancer in loyalism. The days of loyalists shooting loyalists have to be finished."

So there is definitely something tougher than being a poor, misunderstood unionist paramilitary - being a Catholic who happens to live next door to one.