A VENDETTA among criminal elements of loyalist paramilitaries associated with the UVF is being blamed for the killing in north Belfast early yesterday of a well-known loyalist activist, Mr Tommie Stewart.
Two people - a man and a woman - were being questioned by the RUC last night about the shooting of Mr Stewart, a 32-year-old father of two, in the Ballysillan area at about 2 a.m.
Mr Stewart was walking with another man near his home when they were confronted by a number of gunmen, who opened fire. Mr Stewart was hit several times; the other man was not injured.
Mr David Ervine, spokesman for the loyalist Progressive Unionist Party (PUP), insisted yesterday that the UVF had no involvement in the killing and said that it did not represent a breakdown of the loyalist ceasefire or affect his own party's involvement in the inter-party talks.
However, it was reported at the weekend that a serious internal dispute had broken out in the UVF in north Belfast and that the organisation's leadership had "stood down" two prominent members there, allegedly including Mr Stewart. Some reports insisted yesterday that he had been the north Belfast commander of the paramilitary group.
The UVF leadership is investigating an unsanctioned £50,000 armed robbery of a post office and other unauthorised actions.
However, police investigating the murder of Mr Stewart are said to be satisfied that it was not directly linked to this internal dispute and that the UVF was not formally involved.
There was speculation that elements holding a grudge against Mr Stewart over some past incident may have seen an opportunity to attack him, without fear of reprisals, after his suspension by the UVF.
Loyalist sources confirmed, however, that Mr Stewart had expressed support for the Mid-Ulster loyalist, Mr Billy Wright, who has defied a death threat from the Combined Loyalist Military Command (CLMC), which ordered him to leave the North.
In 1985 Mr Stewart was one of a large number of loyalists implicated in terrorist crimes by "Budgie" Allen, a UVF "supergrass", but the charges were dropped after the evidence of the "supergrass" was rejected.
The Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP), in a statement yesterday, claimed that the shooting of Mr Stewart was "undoubtedly the beginning of moves against supporters of Billy Wright in Belfast".
The party said that it would be of interest to nationalism, and the IRSP in particular, to witness the political response from both governments to the killing and what effect it would have on the participation of the loyalist fringe parties in the all-party talks.
The killing was condemned yesterday by the Northern Secretary, Sir Patrick Mayhew and by political leaders in the North. There was considerable concern that it marked the return of guns to the streets of north Belfast. In fact, it came only hours after three young men were "knee-capped in what was assumed to be a loyalist paramilitary "punishment shooting" in the same area of the city.