Post by Harry on Jul 16, 2007 15:38:09 GMT
UDA 'cutting out the macho stuff'
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...but is holding on to guns as a security blanket
Sunday, July 15, 2007
A UDA 'brigadier' yesterday described the organisation's guns as a " security blanket", but insisted: "There is absolutely no threat to the republican/nationalist community".
The senior UDA leader spoke to Sunday Life as Stormont Minister Margaret Ritchie continues to review funding for a conflict transformation initiative in loyalist areas.
The UDA leadership source said: "The loyalist paramilitaries see the biggest threat coming from dissident republicans, drug barons and criminal gangs.
"There isn't, and there hasn't been, a threat to the republican/nationalist community for years now."
The paramilitary leader claimed the UDA and associated UFF and Ulster Young Militants were undergoing a "major transformation".
He added: "And it is major stuff.
"They are cutting out all the macho stuff; punishment beatings, kneecappings. Everything is more community-orientated.
"People are still coming [to the UDA] with the same complaints - so-and-so did something - and they are expecting the paramilitaries to kick their doors in, the old way.
"But the paramilitaries are saying those things don't happen anymore; take it to the PSNI."
But there is still no hint of decommissioning in the "major transformation" the paramilitary brigadier suggested was happening. The guns are still needed as "the security blanket for the community", he claimed.
"Because of the way the process is, if all of this fails, they still have something to fall back on, a means of defence."
He's talking about the peace process, and guns still being needed - but " purely for defensive and security reasons".
The UDA leader said the challenge for the process was "to bring the loyalists in from the cold and demonstrate there is no need for guns".
All of this, he said, will take time.
"It's like the Shinners. They couldn't do decommissioning and policing together.
"That's because their community and their organisation wouldn't accept it, the two hurdles at once."
And he referred to DUP leader Rev Ian Paisley's "over our dead bodies" comment during his Twelfth speech just over a year ago when dismissing the prospect of "IRA-Sinn Fein" in government.
"So you don't know what's going to happen in time," the paramilitary brigadier said.
The challenge for now, he insisted, was that "loyalism has to be integrated into the process".
Debate over 'guns for funds'
THE first thing that loyalists will tell you is that it's not money for the UDA.
More than £1m in Government funding, spread over three years, has been allocated to a conflict transformation initiative in loyalist areas.
The project director is Frankie Gallagher. Others, including 'Twister' McQuiston, Davy Nicholl, Colin Halliday and Sammy Duddy, also have jobs within the transformation initiative.
All five are identified with the Ulster Political Research Group (UPRG) - the political wing of the UDA - or are political advisers to that organisation.
Not all employed within the project are from a loyalist or ex-prisoner background.
The controversy in all of this centres on how the UDA at its most senior level dismisses any prospect of early decommissioning - something the group repeats in this newspaper today.
At the level of the Executive, Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie insists that conflict transformation has to include the UDA getting rid of its weapons - putting them beyond use.
And so the question of funding remains under review.
"The funding for the conflict transformation initiative is not a blank cheque," said Gallagher.
"There are specific targets to be met within specific timescales - all included in a three-year action plan."
The money is not for the UDA - but the paramilitary leadership is making things difficult for the project by effectively dismissing the issue of decommissioning.
Any future move on arms - what to do with them, or not do with them - will be decided above the level of Gallagher in what the UDA calls its 'inner council'.
The director of the conflict transformation initiative, Loyalism in Transition, prefers to talk about what is being done and can be done now.
- A 90pc reduction in the flying of paramilitary flags;
- Ensuring no paramilitary activity at the 11th night bonfires (left);
- Working with the Fire and Rescue Service to "minimise" the danger of those bonfires;
- Agreeing that "many" paramilitary murals will be replaced;
- Stewarding marches and keeping them peaceful, and;
- Meeting with the PSNI and IMC.
The work with the police, Gallagher insists, is about reducing crime and ending paramilitary activity - and trying to establish guidelines for measuring progress.
All of this is away from the stage on which all of that controversy over guns plays out.
The biggest threat to this conflict transformation initiative and its funding is not at the political level, but at the paramilitary level.
If the project is to succeed and to survive it needs more help from the UDA leadership.
Guns as a "security blanket" still needed for "defence", having a "fallback" position - all of this still sounds like the language of war; the talk and the tone of yesterday.
Conflict transformation is about peace and, as part of that, the UDA needs to find something new to say and do on decommissioning.
Until it does, this project and its funding will remain under scrutiny.
slnews@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
Email Article
Print Version
Search
Most Emailed
Most Read
...but is holding on to guns as a security blanket
Sunday, July 15, 2007
A UDA 'brigadier' yesterday described the organisation's guns as a " security blanket", but insisted: "There is absolutely no threat to the republican/nationalist community".
The senior UDA leader spoke to Sunday Life as Stormont Minister Margaret Ritchie continues to review funding for a conflict transformation initiative in loyalist areas.
The UDA leadership source said: "The loyalist paramilitaries see the biggest threat coming from dissident republicans, drug barons and criminal gangs.
"There isn't, and there hasn't been, a threat to the republican/nationalist community for years now."
The paramilitary leader claimed the UDA and associated UFF and Ulster Young Militants were undergoing a "major transformation".
He added: "And it is major stuff.
"They are cutting out all the macho stuff; punishment beatings, kneecappings. Everything is more community-orientated.
"People are still coming [to the UDA] with the same complaints - so-and-so did something - and they are expecting the paramilitaries to kick their doors in, the old way.
"But the paramilitaries are saying those things don't happen anymore; take it to the PSNI."
But there is still no hint of decommissioning in the "major transformation" the paramilitary brigadier suggested was happening. The guns are still needed as "the security blanket for the community", he claimed.
"Because of the way the process is, if all of this fails, they still have something to fall back on, a means of defence."
He's talking about the peace process, and guns still being needed - but " purely for defensive and security reasons".
The UDA leader said the challenge for the process was "to bring the loyalists in from the cold and demonstrate there is no need for guns".
All of this, he said, will take time.
"It's like the Shinners. They couldn't do decommissioning and policing together.
"That's because their community and their organisation wouldn't accept it, the two hurdles at once."
And he referred to DUP leader Rev Ian Paisley's "over our dead bodies" comment during his Twelfth speech just over a year ago when dismissing the prospect of "IRA-Sinn Fein" in government.
"So you don't know what's going to happen in time," the paramilitary brigadier said.
The challenge for now, he insisted, was that "loyalism has to be integrated into the process".
Debate over 'guns for funds'
THE first thing that loyalists will tell you is that it's not money for the UDA.
More than £1m in Government funding, spread over three years, has been allocated to a conflict transformation initiative in loyalist areas.
The project director is Frankie Gallagher. Others, including 'Twister' McQuiston, Davy Nicholl, Colin Halliday and Sammy Duddy, also have jobs within the transformation initiative.
All five are identified with the Ulster Political Research Group (UPRG) - the political wing of the UDA - or are political advisers to that organisation.
Not all employed within the project are from a loyalist or ex-prisoner background.
The controversy in all of this centres on how the UDA at its most senior level dismisses any prospect of early decommissioning - something the group repeats in this newspaper today.
At the level of the Executive, Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie insists that conflict transformation has to include the UDA getting rid of its weapons - putting them beyond use.
And so the question of funding remains under review.
"The funding for the conflict transformation initiative is not a blank cheque," said Gallagher.
"There are specific targets to be met within specific timescales - all included in a three-year action plan."
The money is not for the UDA - but the paramilitary leadership is making things difficult for the project by effectively dismissing the issue of decommissioning.
Any future move on arms - what to do with them, or not do with them - will be decided above the level of Gallagher in what the UDA calls its 'inner council'.
The director of the conflict transformation initiative, Loyalism in Transition, prefers to talk about what is being done and can be done now.
- A 90pc reduction in the flying of paramilitary flags;
- Ensuring no paramilitary activity at the 11th night bonfires (left);
- Working with the Fire and Rescue Service to "minimise" the danger of those bonfires;
- Agreeing that "many" paramilitary murals will be replaced;
- Stewarding marches and keeping them peaceful, and;
- Meeting with the PSNI and IMC.
The work with the police, Gallagher insists, is about reducing crime and ending paramilitary activity - and trying to establish guidelines for measuring progress.
All of this is away from the stage on which all of that controversy over guns plays out.
The biggest threat to this conflict transformation initiative and its funding is not at the political level, but at the paramilitary level.
If the project is to succeed and to survive it needs more help from the UDA leadership.
Guns as a "security blanket" still needed for "defence", having a "fallback" position - all of this still sounds like the language of war; the talk and the tone of yesterday.
Conflict transformation is about peace and, as part of that, the UDA needs to find something new to say and do on decommissioning.
Until it does, this project and its funding will remain under scrutiny.
slnews@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
