The largest loyalist terrorist group in Northern Ireland announced that it was “standing down” from midnight last night.

The Ulster Defence Association, which has some 3,000 members, had in 1994 declared a ceasefire but pursued violence and crime on a lesser scale. At its peak it had had 50,000 members and the muscle to enforce the 1974 strike that brought down the Sun-ningdale power-sharing accord. Its speciality was revenge murders of innocent Catholics after IRA attacks. It killed hundreds of people and extorted vast sums from its own community.

The group, which includes the Ulster Freedom Fighters, said in a statement that at midnight on Sunday it would “stand down, with all military intelligence destroyed and all weaponry will be put beyond use”. The UDA’s South Belfast commander, Jackie McDonald, confirmed that the group would not surrender its weapons to international officials. “Ninety per cent of people in the loyalist community don’t want decommissioning. They are the people’s guns,” Mr McDonald said. “They don’t trust people yet.”

The UDA appeared to be following the Ulster Volunteer Force, which said in May that it had put its weapons under the custody of senior members and “beyond the reach” of rank-and-file members.The UVF did not surrender any to John de Chastelain, the retired Canadian general trying to oversee paramilitary disarmament.

The UDA statement also said that drug dealing must be eradicated.

Bertie Ahern, the Irish Prime Minister, welcomed the UDA’s move, but said that the organisation now must cooperate with the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning and surrender its weapons.

Shaun Woodward, the Northern Ireland Secretary, said the UDA statement was important but should lead to decommissioning: “They will be judged by their actions, not their words,” Mr Woodward said.

The UDA statement said that it “believes that the war is over, and we are now in a new democratic dispensation that will lead to permanent political stability – but we believe the political parties and the political institutions are themselves still in a period of transition. The organisation intends to continue through a process of transformation that will ultimately achieve a Northern Ireland based on equality, justice and inclusivity where no sections of our people are left behind regardless of religion, politics or identity.” Members would be directing all their energies into developing their communities, the UDA said.

The group was “acknowledging that the military war is over and the struggle to maintain the Union is on a new and more complex battlefield”.

“In consideration of this new reality, all active service units of the Ulster Freedom Fighters will stand down with all military intelligence destroyed, and, as a consequence of this, all weaponry will be put beyond use.”

The UDA claimed: “It must be recognised with honour that it was through the sacrifice of these brave men who were the cutting edge that took the war to the enemy that we enjoy a relative peace and stability and an opportunity to build a new future.” It was hoped that the battle flags of the UFF would never again see the light of day, but they would stand in readiness, the UDA said.

Ordering members to desist from crime, the UDA leaders said: “It is the duty of every member to understand that to be involved in crime or criminality is to undermine the cause. We have had those who joined our ranks for political reasons; these men went on to give great sacrifice and brought honour to the organisation . . . But there have been those who joined for crime and self-gain. These people must be rooted out and never be allowed to breathe in our ranks.

“These people have been involved in drug dealing, and this must be stamped out. Drugs destroy our children, and our children are our future. These people are not loyalists, they are criminals. There is no place in the organisation for such people.”

A coffee jar-type bomb exploded during a Remembrance Day service in Newry. No one was hurt. In Enniskillen, after a bomb warning that turned out to be false, a security alert cleared the town.

36 years of violence

— The UDA was founded in 1971 and was designed to be an umbrella organisation for a variety of loyalist groups

— It has been blamed for the deaths of more than 400 people, using the cover name of the Ulster Freedom Fighters in the majority of cases

— At one point it favoured an independent Northern Ireland and maintained links with far-Right groups including Combat 18

— Its most infamous attacks included the killing of eight people at Greysteel, Co Derry, and the murder of the lawyer Pat Finucane

— A ceasefire was called by the group in 1994, after the IRA’s cessation, but crumbled amid internal feuding

Source: Times Database

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