THE Progressive Unionist party, political partners of the Ulster Volunteer Force, has continued to get its annual grant of £27,000 despite a recommendation from the International Monitoring Commission (IMC) that it be withheld.

The decision by Peter Hain, secretary of state for Northern Ireland, to continue the funding is an effort to influence the UVF into permanently renouncing violence by showing that the PUP still has some political influence.

It is the first time that the government has declined to act on an IMC recommendation and will be seen as a dent in the monitoring body’s authority.

Officials said the money, a grant to political parties in the Northern Ireland assembly, was being paid to keep the PUP functioning as a political party so that it could influence the UVF in a peaceful direction in the coming months.

The grant had been withheld in the past financial year and as a result the PUP had to close an office and lay off staff. The position will be reviewed in January.

Last month the IMC reported that the UVF had committed five murders and attempted 15 more as part of a feud with the Loyalist Volunteer Force. The organisation had also opened fire with high-velocity weapons on police and soldiers after last month’s Whiterock Orange march.

Tomorrow the PUP leadership will attempt to exert its influence on the UVF to renounce violence publicly. In a series of interviews David Ervine, the PUP leader, and his senior colleagues will call for a process of “conflict transformation” aimed at bringing UVF violence to a permanent end.

One PUP activist described the attempt to influence the UVF in do or die terms.

“Either things will get better or the capacity for the PUP to do any kind of work will be gone,” he said.

At a PUP party conference yesterday, from which the press was excluded, the relationship with the UVF was discussed and the prospect of breaking all links was considered. The PUP, which is left-wing in outlook, has attracted a number of members with no UVF background who are frustrated by the continuing violence.

Ervine, himself a former UVF prisoner, and the leadership won the day with a proposal that the party use its influence in a final push to end UVF violence for good. The PUP will attempt to win concessions from the government to revitalise loyalist communities and persuade the UVF that there is a political community.

“We don’t mind if they disband or become a Prod version of the Irish National Foresters, but the point is that the option of using force is removed from the equation for good. The notion that violence is an option is unacceptable,” he said.

After the conference in an east Belfast hotel, the PUP issued two statements which were cryptically worded but positive in tone. One said that the PUP had held a “wideranging and honest debate”, adding that “the issues dealt with have led us to take some hard decisions”.

A second statement added: “The PUP is committed to conflict transformation and the processes that empower and build a strong, confident and vibrant loyalist community. Confidence and stability are central factors in securing a peaceful future for all our society. This requires transformation in the communities most affected by conflict.”

A Presbyterian minister who has been talking to the leaders of the UVF and the LVF said he was optimistic about a breakthrough in the feud. The Rev Mervyn Gibson, who sits on the Loyalist Commission, told the BBC that attempts to mediate were “still continuing”.

Officials believe that the LVF may disband and this will improve the chances of winding down the UVF.

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