Loyalist prisoners have issued a strong rebuke to the DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, and Mr Bob McCartney of the UK Unionist Party over their decision to boycott the Stormont talks, saying the two unionist leaders "no longer speak for the majority of us".
A statement from UFF inmates in the Maze prison was read at a rally attended by several thousand loyalists at Belfast City Hall yesterday. The crowd applauded as a prisoner, currently on a pre-release scheme, read: "If the DUP and UK Unionists won't take on the enemies of the Union at Castle Buildings, they certainly won't take them on in a conflict. Actions speak louder than words. Stop living in the past, McCartney and Paisley."
The UFF statement said the "true unionist and loyalist leaders of Ulster" were sick of the "same old rhetoric" and told the two unionist leaders to either "stand up or shut up".
The rally was called to mark the third anniversary of the loyalist ceasefire, and was organised by the Loyalist Prisoners' Association and the Ulster Democratic Party (UDP). The Progressive Unionist Party, which has links with the UVF, did not attend.
Men wearing dark glasses and military-style uniforms carried UFF banners and formed colour parties in front of the platform. Posters calling for the release of prisoners such as Michael Stone were held aloft. Earlier, loyalist bands from different parts of Belfast had converged on the city centre.
Mr Gary McMichael, the leader of the UDP, which has links with the UDA, addressed the rally and demanded early releases for loyalist prisoners, whom he referred to as "UDA/UFF patriots". He said they had played a vital role in the peace process.
"The time has come for real movement on prisoners. The cosmetic exercises we have experienced so far have been derisory. We don't want tinkering around the edges. We want to see actual releases," he said.
Mr McMichael accused the British government of ignoring the prisoners, and of "jeopardising the peace process by its intransigence" on the issue. He said the peace process was about searching for a new society, and that loyalists had made the first step towards that by responding to the community's desire for an end to conflict.
He also accused the British government of making concessions to republicans and said he would be watching "very, very closely" decisions due to be made next week by the Life Sentence Review Board. The American government, he said, had also made "a serious error of judgment" in leaving the IRA off its list of terrorist organisations.
The UDP leader urged Dr Paisley to join the talks, saying that the unionist case would be "unassailable" if all the unionist parties were standing together. "If he will not, then we will press ahead regardless. Loyalists have never walked away from danger or difficulty."
Mr McMichael said loyalists had gone "to great lengths, crossing lines that others refused to cross" in defence of the Union over the past 30 years. "We are not going to leave the Union undefended now just because others are not up to the challenge."
Mr McMichael said republicans had to accept that there was not going to be a United Ireland. "The IRA have tried for 30 years to bomb us out of the Union and we are still here. I can assure that loyalists are not going to be talked out of it by Sinn Fein." He said loyalists and unionists were "the British presence in Ulster", and that they were not going anywhere.
A settlement, he said, would mean that there could be no role for the Republic of Ireland in the internal affairs of the North, and he concluded by guaranteeing "a loyalist settlement". As Mr McMichael ended his speech, the music of Tina Turner, singing You're simply the best was blasted from the stage, and paramilitary colour parties marched away from the platform.