UDA regrouping, claims Adams

British intelligence has urged the Ulster Defence Association to regroup under one supreme commander, Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams claimed today.

In a newspaper article reviewing the crisis in the Northern Ireland peace process, Mr Adams alleged the British government was aware of the plan.

He also claimed intelligence chiefs knew which loyalist paramilitaries killed north Belfast teenager Gerard Lawlor last month.

And in an attack on David Trimble, Mr Adams predicted the Ulster Unionist leader would ‘‘breathe life’’ next month into a ‘‘manufactured, serialised crisis’’ in the peace process, even if it created a climate in which anti-Good Friday Agreement paramilitaries could thrive.

In an article for an Irish American newspaper, Mr Adams wrote: ‘‘For the last few months, the UDA has been actively recruiting and reorganising.

‘‘There is an effort to place the entire organisation under one supreme commander.

‘‘The British government know this. Indeed, in my view, British intelligence agencies are actively encouraging this.’’

Mr Adams claimed a recent firebomb and gun attack on Catholic homes on the outskirts of north Belfast was an attempt to ‘‘divert UDA energies’’ from a feud with the rival Ulster Volunteer Force.

Leading loyalist Johnny Adair was reimprisoned two years ago by the then Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson after a bitter feud erupted between the two loyalist organisations in the Shankill area of Belfast.

Mr Adair was released in May and took part in talks on sectarian interface violence between the Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid and members of the Loyalist Commission made up of paramilitaries, church and politicians.

Nationalists and republicans have accused the UDA of orchestrating this summer’s disturbances an allegation which has been directed in turn at the IRA by unionists.

The UDA admitted murdering Gerard Lawlor on July 21 in the Whitewell area of Belfast after a series of failed murder bids in the north of the city, sparked by a republican gun attack along the peaceline in Ardoyne which wounded a loyalist.

The group claimed the shooting was a ‘‘measured, military response’’.

Mr Adams called on the Police Service of Northern Ireland to publish the forensic history of the gun used to kill the 19-year-old father-of-one and other weapons used in recent loyalist attacks.

The Sinn Fein leader claimed in his Irish Voice article: ‘‘The killing of young Gerard Lawlor can be traced to the same group and Sinn Fein is calling upon the police service to release forensic records of the weapons used in the series of attacks against Catholics.

‘‘The Ulster Unionist Party must be aware of all these developments. They are represented on the Loyalist Commission, which includes the UDA, by one of Mr Trimble’s close advisers.

‘‘The British government is also very aware of this. It is a matter of public record that the loyalist groups are heavily infiltrated by British agents and I for one refuse to believe that the Special Branch and other agencies were not aware in advance of the loyalist gun attacks on the evening Gerard Lawlor was killed.’’

With Ulster Unionists warning their participation in the power sharing government with Sinn Fein has been called into question by ongoing IRA activity, Mr Adams said many republicans and nationalists now had ‘‘serious reservations’’ about the willingness of unionists to share power with them.

He alleged David Trimble was set on a ‘‘pre-determined, highly publicised course’’ to sustain a political crisis at Stormont.

The West Belfast MP also accused the British government of ‘‘pandering to the UUP’’ by moving unilaterally to provide Mr Trimble ‘‘with comfort zones which either breach the Good Friday Agreement or stretch it in that direction.

‘‘What is required is that the British government faces up to the reality that political and violent rejectionism is the real threat to the political institutions and the entire process,’’ he said.