LOYALIST DECOMMISSIONING:GENERAL JOHN de Chastelain's decommissioning body has confirmed that the UVF and its sister paramilitary group the Red Hand Commando have carried out "major" disarmament, while the UDA has begun the process of full decommissioning.
His Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) issued separate statements – first on Saturday in relation to the UDA and after midnight this morning concerning the UVF.
The IICD went a considerable distance in verifying the substance of the disarmament statements issued separately in east Belfast on Saturday morning by the UVF and Red Hand Commando and by the UDA – organisations which over the course of the Troubles killed about 1,000 people, most of them Catholics. It will report to the British and Irish governments at the end of August, when more detail may be provided.
This morning the IICD said it could “confirm it has witnessed a major decommissioning event involving arms, ammunition, explosives and explosive devices belonging to the UVF and Red Hand Commando. The leadership of both organisations have advised us that the weapons and materiel put beyond use in our presence, include all the arms under their control.”
On the UDA, it said on Saturday: “The IICD has witnessed a decommissioning event involving arms belonging to the Ulster Defence Association and the Ulster Freedom Fighters. This is a significant move, and we look forward to completing the process of putting all UDA/UFF arms beyond use at an early opportunity.”
While its statement does not specifically say that all UVF and Red Hand Commando weapons were completely disposed of, the loyalist organisations said they had “completed the process of rendering ordnance totally and irreversibly beyond use”.
The UVF said that in March this year all decommissioning preparations were suspended because of the dissident republican murders of two British soldiers and a PSNI officer. The UVF said it had sought, received and was satisfied with assurances from the British and Irish governments that dissidents would be “vigorously pursued” in both jurisdictions.
The UDA said it was “putting our arsenal of weaponry permanently beyond use”, adding, “this process will be completed within the previously notified timescale.”
This is a timescale agreed between the UDA and IICD, but neither side is saying what is the deadline for disarmament.
Progressive Unionist Party politician and former UVF prisoner Billy Hutchinson, who was interlocutor on behalf of the UVF with the IICD, said: “The UVF and the Red Hand Commando have decommissioned all their weapons.”
He said three independent witnesses from the US, the UK and the Republic of Ireland, whom he refused to name, observed the decommissioning.
The UDA statement was handed out by Frankie Gallagher on Saturday morning at offices in east Belfast of the Ulster Political Research Group, political wing of the UDA. He said the announcement marked a “milestone” in the history of loyalism.