UVF kills again

A cold-blooded murder by the UVF in broad daylight on the Shankill Road on Friday has challenged British propoganda about the loyalist paramilitary ceasefires.

Bobby Moffett, a 44-year-old loyalist ex-prisoner was shot dead by two gunmen as shoppers went about their typical Friday afternoon business just after 1pm.

Two hooded gunmen wearing fluorescent workmen’s coats emerged out of a side street into bright summer sun on the Shankill Road.

A female passer-by was splattered with the victim’s blood as the killers fired two shots into Moffett’s face.

As the killers ran off into Conway Street they brushed passed a ‘Church of God’ sign outside the West Kirk Presbyterian Church.

Senior UVF figures outside a nearby bar stood watching the drama as it unfolded.

It is believed that Moffett was killed as part of a dispute with a leading member of the UVF. He was a member of the UVF-aligned Red Hand Commando until recently.

The UVF is understood to have also expelled the dead man’s sister and her family from the Shankill Road but they returned to the loyalist heartland in recent months.

The dead man is alleged to have wrecked the UVF leader’s car earlier this week.

One senior loyalist, who had known Moffett in prison, claimed he’d been killed as a sign that the UVF was still in control of the Shankill Road.

The murder was carried out less than 24 hours after a mouthpiece for British military inteligence gave the UVF a ‘clean bill or health’.

On Thursday the IMC said the UVF continued to ‘guide the organisation away from paramilitary activity’ and had ‘made worthwhile progress’.

It also repeated the evidently false claim that the UVF had destroyed its guns last year.

“It remains very significant that it was the first of the loyalist organisations to complete decommisstoning and that it did so at a time or increasing dissident republican activity,” the IMC said.

But, significantly, it added the ‘weasel words’: “We can not rule out that some arms were retained in some parts of the organisation.”

There have been increased calls for renewed government sanctions against the PUP and UVF and and an end to the ‘peace funds’ being directed to the UVF killer gangs from the British exchequer.

Shankill Road pastor Jack McKee condemned yesterday’s murder and questioned the veracity of UVF decommissioning.

“This is also clear evidence, regardless of General Jo hn de Chestetetn, that full decommissioning has not taken place.

“Of course meny of us had never been fooled by this.

“Perhaps the government needs to throw out a few more pounds for a few more walls to get painted.”

Raymond McCord, whose son Raymond was beaten to death by a UVF gang on the outskirts of Belfast in 1997, called for PUP leader Dawn Purvis to be expelled from the assembly.

“Either the UVF is killing people or it isn’t. The dogs in the street know they have kept their guns and have continued to murder,” he said.

“If the government don’t take action against the PUP then the UVF will just go on killing innocent people. Enough is enough.”

Urgent Appeal