Loyalist UVF poised for 'wind down' statement

The Ulster Volunteer Force is expected to make a major announcement on its future today.

With British Prime Minister Tony Blair due in Belfast next week for the official opening of the restored Northern power-sharing executive, the loyalist paramilitary group is likely to signal the start of moves to wind down.

The UVF first declared a ceasefire almost 14 years ago – just after the IRA’s first cessation – as part of the intense political process at that time which lead towards the April 1998 Good Friday Agreement. But the organisation has been responsible for several murders since then.

Dawn Purvis, leader of the organisation’s political wing, the Progressive Unionist Party, has already held a series of meetings with the Northern Chief Constable Hugh Orde, Secretary of State Peter Hain and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern before today’s announcement.

London and Dublin have made repeated demands for all the loyalist paramilitary groups, especially the Ulster Defence Association, to end their heavy involvement in criminality and to get rid of their weapons.

It is not clear if the UVF statement is likely to go as far as declaring some form of decommissioning at this stage, but sources have insisted Mr Blair should not underestimate its significance.

The IRA declared an end to its campaign over two years ago.

One of its former commanders in Londonderry, Martin McGuinness, the Mid Ulster Sinn Féin MP and the designate deputy First Minister at the new Stormont Assembly is in Edinburgh today with the First Minister the Ian Paisley, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, for talks with Chancellor Gordon Brown.

They will be pushing for additional funding for the administration in Belfast.