Paramilitary feud 'may be coming to end'

There is reason to hope a violent feud between loyalist paramilitary groups may be drawing close to an end, a senior unionist politician said today.

David Ervine, the leader of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP), suggested there were reasons to believe the bloody row between the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) may be close to resolution.

The party leader said the UVF was not a threat to the peace process.

Mr Ervine appealed for time for the UVF to follow the IRA’s decision to abandon its campaign and decommission.

The East Belfast MLA also insisted it was time for diversity in unionism.

“I detest the concept of unionist unity,” he said.

Mr Ervine told the BBC Radio Ulster’s ‘Inside Politics’ programme: “We all huddle in the corner and find homogeneity, in order words common purpose, and get driven by the lowest common denominator. I am not going there - that is why unionism is in the trouble that it is in.”

At its recent annual conference, the PUP decided it would not sever its links with loyalist paramilitary groups, the UVF and the Red Hand Commando.

In September, the Independent Monitoring Commission blamed the UVF for five murders and 15 attempted murders as part of its feud with the LVF.

Earlier this week, the PUP leader welcomed Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s comments at the Wolfe Tone republican commemoration in Co Kildare that he wanted to reach out to loyalists and include them in the political process.

Mr Ervine has already described as hypocritical the recent SDLP criticism of the PUP for lack of leadership within its community, and for failing to sever its links with the UVF.