The Ulster Freedom Fighters and Ulster Defence Association today announced an end to paramilitary activity for the next 12 months.The outlawed group said in a statement that its units "have begun to observe a 12-month period of military inactivity".
British security sources say the UDA is heavily involved in drug dealing and racketeering, and have blamed it for the killing of a number of Catholics in recent years.
The organisation declared a ceasefire in 1994 in response to the IRA's ceasefire a few months earlier.
But in late 2001, it was ruled the ceasefire had broken down after the UDA were accused of being behind a wave of pipe bomb attacks on Catholic homes.
Ulster Political Research Group member Mr Tommy Kirkham said the UDA's military cessation for a year was absolute. He said the move was motivated by the organisation's desire to go down a political path.
UPRG member and Castlereagh councillor Mr Frankie Gallagher explained: "This initiative is looking to say to people and we are trying to prove to the Ulster Defence Association that if we can take the bomb, the guns, the pipe bombs and even some of the verbal attacks out of the whole environment, it will put Irish Republicanism and Irish terrorism behind the eight ball."