Loyalists may disarm, but say IRA must go first

By Anne Cadwallader

BELFAST — The Ulster Freedom Fighters, a name used by the loyalist paramilitary group the Ulster Defense Association in claiming killings, has declared that it will consider disarming only if the IRA begins doing so.

The UFF made its statement after the UDA agreed to appoint five members to liaise with the International Independent Commission on Decommissioning, the body to oversee paramilitary disarming in Northern Ireland as part of the current peace process.

If disarmament has not taken place by February, Ulster Unionist Party Leader David Trimble is expected to reconvene a meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council, his party’s ruling body.

Among the five UDA members appointed to liaise with the commission is a gunman convicted of the attempted murder of Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams in 1984.

John Gregg, convicted of the attempted murder of Adams, has been appointed, along with Johnny Adair, recently released from prison for "directing terrorism." and other senior UDA men "Winkie" Dodds and Jack McDonald.

UDP spokesman and double-killer John White completes the five-man delegation to the commission under Canadian General John de Chastelain, who this week sounded a doubtful note on the likelihood of imminent disarmament.

De Chastelain’s seven-paragraph report, issued soon after his first meeting with the UDA, hinted at frustration that a timetable for decommissioning had still to be agreed.

He even suggested he may be forced into forwarding his own schedule, while emphasizing that decommissioning must be voluntary. De Chastelain will report again next month. The contents of that report will be critical to the survival of the new executive and All-Ireland ministerial council.

De Chastelain referred to the "renewed collective commitment of the parties, and the appointment of the authorized representatives by two paramilitary groups that had not previously done so.

These events provide the basis for an assessment that "decommissioning will occur," he said, adding a rider that "nonetheless, the commission is prepared, if necessary, to state that actual decommissioning is to start within a specified period."

In making its five nominations to the Decommissioning Body, the UDA, using its flag of convenience, the UUF, said that after "careful consideration and widespread consultation with its members" it had decided to appoint representatives.

One of the UDA’s five man decommissioning team, however, risks going back to jail after allegedly breaking the terms of his early release. Adair was instantly recognizable, despite wearing a balaclava, when he appeared on TV with five other men announcing the team.

Adair, 35, released only three months ago after serving six years of a 16-year sentence, appeared alongside five other UDA men last Wednesday at a press conference in a drinking club in the Shankill area of West Belfast.