The February deadline for decommissioning seemed to concentrate the minds of loyalist paramilitaries, writes DAN KEENAN
THE IRISH and British governments, Fine Gael, the main Northern parties and the churches have been prompt and effusive in their welcome for the long-delayed announcement that the UDA has decommissioned.
All commentators, with the exception of sceptic Jim Allister’s Traditional Unionist Voice, are simply relieved that the last of the large loyalist groupings has disposed of its arsenal.
No doubt there will be a warm welcome for the news in Áras an Uachtaráin, particularly in view of the representations made by Martin McAleese for aid in the reconstruction of disadvantaged loyalist communities in the North. His work has without doubt been of significant benefit and has won goodwill in the loyalist heartlands.
How any financing of loyalist areas is to be done remains to be seen. But it will be carried out in such a manner as to underpin Frankie Gallagher’s repeated assertions yesterday that the move to decommission was not in return for hard cash. Gallagher and his Ulster Political Research Group, the political voice of the UDA, may well anticipate a quid pro quo for the communities which gave rise to and supported the gunmen of the UDA .
The governments in Dublin and particularly in London are claiming praise for their steadfastness in relation to their policy of holding the door open for decommissioning. but only until next month.
Until February 9th the British government would permit the de Chastelain commission to do its work and facilitate the UDA in its disposal of guns, explosives and munitions without subjecting them to forensic tests or other detective work. Deadlines in Northern Ireland connected to the peace process have only been significant in that they have been repeatedly broken. But this ultimatum has appeared to have concentrated the minds of some in loyalist paramilitary ranks who have appeared the most obstinate.
It is, after all, 15 years since the main loyalist groupings announced their campaigns of violence were over and offered “abject and true remorse” for the hurt which had been caused.
It has been 12 years since the weapons decommissioning apparatus was carefully and controversially constructed to help enable the gun to be removed from both republican and loyalist politics. Patience clearly pays.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland also has grounds for feeling particularly pleased with the development.
At a stroke, there can be no further ambiguity about loyalist criminality and extensive drug dealing. This makes the police job of countering such criminality less complicated and there are now grounds for anticipating that loyalist communities will turn against the criminals in their midst, now stripped of any paramilitary cloak, and have recourse to the police and courts.
Optimistic attention will now be turned on the southeast Antrim “brigade” of the UDA which has split from the main organisation and is being treated by the authorities as, effectively, a separate grouping.
It has already decommissioned a token amount and has promised it will complete the job before February 9th.
The INLA, the last major republican grouping still to decommission its weapons, has to yet make its intentions clear.
Its bombers murdered former Tory Northern Ireland spokesman and close Thatcher associate Airey Neave at the House of Commons shortly before the Iron Lady came to power in 1979. Some 113 others have died at its hands during the conflict, some of them in the course of bloody feuding with other republican groupings.
It has called a ceasefire and, despite sporadic incidents of violence, has announced its war is over and made contact with Gen John de Chastelain in a move which coincided with the visit to Northern Ireland last October by US secretary of state Hillary Clinton.
But if the de Chastelain commission holds close to its established reputation, any progress on that score will probably remain under wraps until that objective, like yesterday’s, has been reached.