LOYALIST PARAMILITARY leaders were in contact with each other over the weekend to determine how and when it should be publicly confirmed that the UVF, Red Hand Commando and UDA decommissioned weapons this month, according to informed sources.
There is still an expectation that the head of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning Gen John de Chastelain will be in a position shortly to confirm the disarmament.
Leaders of the UVF, its smaller sister organisation the Red Hand Commando and the UDA “tick-tacked” with each other this weekend to consider when Gen de Chastelain should be given the green light to confirm the decommissioning, the sources said.
Northern secretary Shaun Woodward said yesterday he expected an official statement on decommissioning “in the next few days”.
In the case of the UVF its decommissioning was described as “significant and substantial”. There is less clarity, however, about the extent of the disarmament carried out by the Red Hand Commando and the UDA, which is a much more diverse group compared with the relatively cohesive UVF.
Mr Woodward repeated that the British government did not buy off the paramilitaries to persuade them to decommission. This was in the face of some reports that the UDA was looking for prisoner releases and millions of pounds to move on weapons.
The head of the Methodist Church, the Rev Donald Kerr, while welcoming the reports of decommissioning, said there must be no financial reward.
Alliance leader David Ford said the message to the UDA must be loud and clear, “get a grip and give up your guns”.
“If these reports are correct, this is an affront to every victim of UDA violence. The UDA have a reputation as extortionists and if they are seeking financial gains for decommissioning then they have plumbed new depths. It seems that the UVF have done what is required and the UDA must now do the same,” he added.
Mr Woodward, however, told BBC Radio Ulster that the paramilitary groups were not offered any incentives to disarm. “There is no payback. There are no deals, there are no negotiations,” he said.
“What we have got to understand here is that this is about getting weapons which are illegally held by paramilitary organisations off the streets . . . and getting them put not just beyond use but to be destroyed,” he said.
Mr Woodward indicated, however, that as a consequence of decommissioning there could be greater support for constructive initiatives in loyalist communities. “The opportunity we have to grasp here is to ensure that we embrace those communities,” he said.
Meanwhile, musician Stephen Travers, who survived the 1975 UVF attack which claimed the lives of three members of the Miami Showband, has welcomed the reports of UVF decommissioning. On Saturday he phoned the Rev Chris Hudson, who in the past has acted as an intermediary with loyalist paramilitaries, to congratulate the UVF on the move.