THE UVF is today due to make a major announcement about decommissioning, according to informed sources.
The UVF and Red Hand Commando are expected to announce today that they have engaged in “significant and substantial” acts of decommissioning and that this was observed and confirmed by the head of the decommissioning body Gen John de Chastelain.
It is also expected that the Progressive Unionist Party, political wing of the UVF, will be involved in today’s announcement.
The UDA is also understood to have carried out acts of decommissioning, although so far that disarmament is said not to be as significant as the UVF and Red Hand Commando move.
No date has so far been set for a UDA announcement on decommissioning.
Meanwhile, the Parades Commission has called on Orange Order representatives and nationalist residents to enter into “serious discussions” to try to come to a future definitive agreement over the annual contentious Whiterock parade in west Belfast.
There is some concern that following the minor disturbances at last weekend’s Tour of the North loyalist parade in north Belfast, allegedly involving some dissident republican supporters, that there could be trouble at this afternoon’s Whiterock Orange Order parade.
The Whiterock parades have been peaceful since the last major outbreak of trouble during the postponed parade which took place in September 2005.
Additional anxiety was triggered this week, however, following a warning by Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness that the days of republicans “stretching” themselves to maintain calm in the face of Orange Order marching “sectarianism” could not last forever.
The Parades Commission has again imposed strict restrictions on today’s Orange Order parade. Just 50 Orangemen are to be allowed parade on to the Springfield Road through the Workman Avenue gate, while several hundred other marchers and band members will be rerouted through the old Mackies industrial site.
The Springfield Residents Action Group will stage a protest along the disputed stretch of the Springfield Road.
The Parades Commission urged the two sides to the annual disputed parade “to re-enter serious discussions in order to resolve those outstanding matters which remain in the way of a final and inclusive resolution”.
Meanwhile, ahead of another flashpoint Orange Order parade in Coleraine, Co Derry, on Wednesday evening the order has voluntarily decided to impose its own restrictions on the annual Somme commemoration parade as a result of tensions caused by the recent loyalist mob murder of Kevin McDaid in the nationalist Heights area of the city.
Normally, 2,000 Orangemen and 20 bands parade through Coleraine, including the Heights area. But the Orange Order yesterday decided that just 100 people including a band would parade in the Heights area before rejoining the main element of the parade.
The order said it also removed two flags in the area yesterday to “help defuse community tension”. Loyalists and nationalists have been involved in a tense stand-off over loyalist flags and bunting in recent days.