Loyalist violence on increase, IMC warns

All the paramilitary murders in Northern Ireland since last March have been carried out by loyalists, the Independent Monitoring Commission reported today.

The IMC noted loyalist paramilitaries were responsible for significantly more violence in Northern Ireland than republicans. Shooting casualties caused by loyalist groups are nearly the same as in the preceding six month period, while assault casualties are up by 38 per cent.

Shooting casualties caused by republican groups are down by 43 per cent

compared with the preceding six month period, and assault casualties are down by 40 per cent.

The IMC also warned that the loyalist paramilitary feud which claimed the lives of four people in Belfast this summer could erupt again.

The report said the Ulster Volunteer Force, which carried out the four murders in July and August, was an extremely dangerous organisation.

The IMC also stuck by its recommendation that the British government should impose financial sanctions against the group's political wing, the Progressive Unionist Party. Last July Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain reimposed financial sanctions on the PUP because of its UVF links, depriving the party of Stormont allowances.

Jameson Lockhart, Craig McCausland, Stephen Paul and Michael Green were shot dead by the UVF over the summer as it waged a war against the Loyalist Volunteer Force.

While the victims were perceived by the UVF to be members or associates of the LVF, today's report said in some cases those killed had no links at all.

"We noted in our sixth report that the feud had its origin in the rivalry and extreme animosity between the two organisations and referred to competition, greed and power as factors in the upsurge of violence during the summer," the report said.

"We recognised that the escalation of the feud over that period may have boiled up as a result of local animosities but concluded that the UVF leadership had decided that it was now the time to finish off the LVF.

"Although the feud has largely died down since the end of August, the nature of these causes means, we fear, that this lull will not necessarily be lasting."

While the killing of former Ulster Defence Association brigadier Jim Gray fell outside the period covered in the report, the IMC attributed the murder of Stephen Nelson, who died in March from injuries sustained in a vicious assault outside a nightclub in Newtownabbey last September, to the organisation.

The commission could not definitively state the UDA and UVF were behind the sectarian attacks and intimidation of Catholic families in the North Antrim village of Ahoghill, but it accused both organisations of supporting them. The report also said rival UVF and UDA members clashed in Carrickfergus, Co Antrim, in June.

Both organisations teamed up in the expulsion of families from the loyalist Garneville area in east Belfast in July during the UVF's feud with the LVF. The commission also said the UVF was involved in rioting in Belfast in early August during police searches linked to its feud with the LVF.

"The UVF continues to recruit members; some recruits receive extensive training, including in the use of firearms, others receive basic training," the IMC said. "The UVF is also involved in organised crime including drugs. We conclude that the UVF is, in the words of our fifth report, 'active, violent and ruthless' and we believe it will continue to use violence where it thinks that would be in its interests. It remains an extremely dangerous organisation."

The report said the UDA had been involved in the monitoring of hardline republicans and also considered targeting police and prison officers during the summer. One member planned sectarian petrol bomb attacks in the Newtownbreda area of south Belfast in July.

The UDA was also continuing to recruit and remained involved in the drugs trade. Its members robbed a bingo hall in Carrickfergus in March and also stole £17,000 from a bookmaker's in Newtownabbey, Co Antrim, in April.

"The UDA said in a statement it issued in November 2004 that it would desist from 'military activity'," the report said. "Whatever meaning the UDA may ascribe to this term, we believe it is clear that the organisation is involved in violent and other serious crime and that it remains an active threat to the rule of law in Northern Ireland.

"Some of the recent activities of the UDA described above raise questions about the status of the UDA ceasefire. We will address this more fully in our next report."

The IMC said the Loyalist Volunteer Force remained deeply involved in organised crime, especially drugs. "Since the end of August the feud (with the UVF) has largely died down, though given its causes, we cannot be sanguine that this will be lasting," the report observed.

"Nor can it be allowed to disguise the heavy involvement of the LVF in organised crime, especially drugs. "In addition to the vicious thuggery of which it has shown it is capable, particularly since the beginning of July 2005, the LVF remains a deeply criminal organisation."

Additional reporting: PA