UUP set crunch meeting for June 16

The date of the showdown between rival wings of the Ulster Unionist Party over the British and Irish governments’ plans for the peace process will be June 16, sources confirmed tonight.

Ulster Unionist Party officers agreed at a meeting today that the 900-member ruling council will gather on a Monday evening next month.

Traditionally, crunch meetings of the party have occurred on a Saturday.

Anti-Good Friday Agreement Ulster Unionists requested the meeting of the council because they want the party to reject the joint declaration released earlier this month by the British and Irish governments.

The blueprint contained pledges on the scaling down of the Army presence in the North, policing and justice reform, equality, human rights, support for the Irish and Ulster Scots languages, a sanctions body for parties who contravene the Agreement, and a scheme which would enable so-called on-the-run paramilitaries to return to the province.

Hardline unionists have been outraged by the proposals on demilitarisation, the scheme for on-the-run paramilitaries and an Irish Government nominee on the sanctions body.

Their fury has been fuelled by a leaked memorandum from the General Officer Commanding to Army chiefs that the Royal Irish Regiment’s home battalions could be disbanded.

Army chiefs have since pulled back, insisting the 3,000 soldiers attached to the battalions in Omagh, Armagh City and Holywood, Co Down, will only go when the paramilitary threat in the province disappears.

UUP sources said the motion which will be put to delegates would urge them to reaffirm the position they took at a council meeting last September that they would not go back into government with Sinn Fein until the IRA demonstrated it was beginning to stand down its paramilitary structures.

The motion will also urge delegates to reject proposals linked to the joint declaration.