Daily
Dispatch Wednesday 4th April 2007
MAGINNESS:
KEEP PRESSURE ON UDA TO DECOMMISSION
SDLP Justice Spokesperson Alban Maginness said the UDA and other
loyalist groups need to be kept under constant pressure to decommission,
get out of organised crime and go out of business.
Commenting on remarks made before the Chief Constable, Sir Hugh
Orde, at a Belfast conference, he said:
“Peter Hain and the NIO have been trying to convince people
that there is a ‘good’ UDA deserving of support and
a ‘bad’ UDA which needs to be contained. This is a
fairy story. Today we got a clear signal from the respectable
wing that it has no intention of decommissioning its weapons in
the foreseeable future. In fact, to quote their spokesperson,
disarmament is not even on their radar.
“We now have the ludicrous situation where the UDA has an
Armalite in one hand and a million-pound funding application in
the other. There is confirmation from the police that the UDA
as a whole– and not just the bad guys – is involved
in organised extortion from the construction industry.
“The police are quite properly taking a stern line with
dissident republicans, who no longer have any political hiding
place. All the loyalist paramilitary gangs should get the same
treatment, and none should be feted or funded. There are no respectable
paramilitaries, no good guys in the killer gangs. They should
go out of business or be put out by robust policing, and they
must not be provided with political hiding places at taxpayers’
expense.”
