The Northern Ireland Human Rights Bureau has called for the Ulster Democratic Party and the Progressive Unionist Party to be suspended from the review of the implementation of the Belfast Agreement because of three punishment shootings attributed to loyalist groupings.
According to the bureau's spokesman, Mr Vincent McKenna, the UVF, which is linked to the PUP, carried out an attack on a 22-year-old man in north Belfast on Monday. He was shot once in the right leg.
Mr McKenna has also claimed that two men who were shot in both legs at Shankill Parade on Tuesday were victims of an attack by the UDA, a grouping linked to the UDP.
He added that the shootings were a clear signal from the paramilitaries that they intended to continue carrying out human rights abuses against citizens as long as the Northern Secretary, Dr Mowlam, continued to turn a blind eye.