The former UDA prisoner, Michael Stone, has refused to apologise for killing six Catholics but has voiced support for the Belfast Agreement which, he said, fully secured the Union.
Stone was speaking after being released from the Maze prison yesterday to cheering and applause from a crowd of around 100 loyalists with paramilitary flags. He has served 12 years of six life sentences for the murder of six Catholics at an IRA funeral in Milltown Cemetery, west Belfast, in 1988. He was not due to be released for another seven years. He is among 88 prisoners to be freed this week as the British government implements the final prisoner-release phase of the Belfast Agreement.
At a press conference later in east Belfast, Stone said he had been a UDA member for 30 years. He had joined to defend his family, community and "Ulster". He described the deaths he had caused as "regrettable". Asked if he was sorry for his activities, he said: "I was a volunteer. They were military operations. Many of them were successful from a loyalist paramilitary viewpoint. I don't really regret any fatalities that occurred. I would be a hypocrite to say sorry." He stressed his support for the Agreement and the peace process. He said he had been convinced by Mr Blair's "triplelock" guarantee for the Union. "I believe Blair can be trusted," he said.
Asked if he believed the war was over, he answered: "My war is over." However, he drew attention to the activities of anti-agreement republicans and said he hoped loyalists would not be "drawn into another conflict from these so-called dissident republican elements". He believed loyalist paramilitaries should disarm - "If there is no war, we don't need the weapons." However, he stressed he was not in a position to speak on the issue with authority.
Stone (44), from east Belfast, has nine children and three grandchildren. He has a partner. His parents are in their 70s. He said he was in his 29th year as a UDA member and had many regrets, including two failed marriages and never properly knowing his children or grandchildren. "That has been a great loss to me."
Stone said he planned to disappear from public view in coming months. He doubted he would acquire the high profile of another recently released UDA prisoner, Johnny Adair. "You might see me several times and that would be it. I will be keeping a low profile, working for the betterment of my community. If I feel I am having a negative effect, I will take a back seat." He said he had no intention of entering politics. "I wouldn't even vote for me. I am a soldier, not a politician. Politicians start the wars. It is the soldiers that fight them and the soldiers that die and go to prison."
He referred to his two attempts to kill Mr Martin McGuinness, now the North's Education Minister. "He is in charge of my grandchildren's education, which is ironic. I tried to assassinate him as he took his own daughter to primary school but I didn't because his daughter was holding his hand."
He acknowledged that while his release was the cause of celebration for his community, it would anger some nationalists just as the release of republican inmates later in the week would anger unionists. "I understand this. There are no words I can say to take away this hurt," he said.