Murphy welcomes UDA ceasefire

Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy today welcomed the announcement from the loyalist Ulster Defence Association to declare a 12-month ceasefire but urged them to work towards the ending of all paramilitary activity.

Just hours after the UDA confirmed that it was re-engaging with the international decommissioning body in Belfast and giving its political associates in the Ulster Political Research Group a year to steer the organisation down a political path, Mr Murphy urged them to go the extra mile by ending all activity for good.

He said: “The UDA statement is a positive move in the right direction but one that must result in a permanent end to paramilitary activity in all of its aspects.

“I welcome their commitment to re-engage with the decommissioning body, to work to defuse tensions at the interfaces and the recognition of the damage that drug abuse does to the community.

“The communities that have suffered most grievously over the past 30 years and more are often those which were severely disadvantaged in the first place.

“Those are the very communities that need the peace and stability that can come only when the Good Friday agreement is fully implemented.

“We must all work to achieve those acts of completion that will take us there.”

Earlier, in an east Belfast hotel, the UDA announced, through the Ulster Political Research Group, plans to have a year-long cease-fire under the John Gregg Initiative – in memory of the South Antrim UDA Brigadier gunned down in the loyalist feud in Belfast earlier this month.

The UDA declared: “As and from February 21, 2003, all units of the Ulster Freedom Fighters, the Ulster Defence Association and the Ulster Young Militants in mainland Britain and in Northern Ireland have begun to observe a 12 month period of military inactivity.

“This period will be monitored internally every three months to ensure that there is a real and genuine political movement during and after the election of the new Assembly in Northern Ireland.

“An agreed, acceptable and equitable final settlement will produce even greater peace and stability within the confines of our beloved Ulster.

“We would urge the Dublin Government and the British Government to be less dictatorial during any new negotiations.”

The UDA also announced that it intended:

:: To submit a new name to General John de Chastelain’s Independent International Decommissioning Commission in Belfast. However, it also signalled that when the IRA had disarmed fully, it would respond.

:: To let its political associates in the UPRG come forward with several proposals on the future of the UDA when the level of threat to the unionist and Protestant community had been eliminated.

:: To undergo an internal review and restructuring mechanism, ensuring the organisation’s Brigadiers would not have a public face and to make the UPRG fill that role instead.

:: To do their utmost to defuse tensions in sectarian flashpoint areas in Belfast and elsewhere, working with community leaders and the PSNI to stop street violence between loyalists and nationalists. However, they would not engage in direct dialogue with Sinn Fein and the IRA.

:: To lend support and advice to the Protestant marching organisations and do all they could to alleviate difficult situations.

:: To encourage all UDA members to steer clear of drugs, either for personal use or in selling them. It also apologised for members of the organisation who had been involved in the drug problem.

Nationalist SDLP assembly member Alban Maginness gave a cautious welcome to the statement, while Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble described it as a positive development.