The Loyalist Volunteer Force yesterday cancelled plans to hand over some of its weapons to the decommissioning agency. The loyalist group said it had taken the decision because of remarks made at Westminster on Tuesday by the Ulster Unionist Party security spokesman, Mr Ken Maginnis.
Mr Maginnis had said the LVF were "ruthless and sectarian killers". He went on to say: "We must wonder at what stage, having achieved its objective of getting its prisoners released in return for decommissioning, we shall see the LVF resume violence."
The LVF said it had intended to hand over a "small but significant number of arms" in the early hours of this morning to Gen John de Chastelain's decommissioning agency in Belfast.
However, as a result of Mr Maginnis's comments it had cancelled that arrangement.
Speaking in Portadown last night a senior LVF member said: "The ruling army council of the LVF had given the go-ahead for the hand-over of weapons to take place early Thursday morning. This would have endorsed our early statements which indicated that decommissioning would take place once our ceasefire had been officially recognised by Mo Mowlam. Ken Maginnis's comments left us with no alternative but to cancel that arrangement." The LVF spokesman went on to point out that this latest action simply meant that decommissioning had been postponed until a time of the LVF's choosing and was not to be taken as a change of policy by the group.
Pastor Kenny McClinton, the appointed representative between the LVF and the decommissioning agency, said last night he was bitterly disappointed at the decision to cancel the weapons hand-over. He said: "A tremendous amount of work had gone into putting these arrangements into place. Now as a result of irresponsible and ill-timed comments by a so-called experienced politician, the hand-over of weapons, something all right-thinking people wanted to see, has been delayed indefinitely." Despite this latest setback Pastor McClinton is confident that the LVF will honour its pledge to hand over its arsenal.
"The LVF have always maintained that when the government officially recognised their ceasefire and LVF prisoners became eligible for early release then decommissioning would take place. I believe that will still be the case. However, at this point in time I have no indication as to when that will actually take place", he said.
A spokesman for the Northern Ireland Office said: "We are disappointed by this statement. We would urge the LVF and all organisations illegally in possession of arms to decommission as soon as possible in accordance with the Good Friday agreement."