Loyalists confirm weapons decommissioned
Loyalist paramilitaries in the North have confirmed they have decommissioned a major cache of weapons.
The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) released statements today confirming reports that they have carried out major acts of disarmament.
Weapons were also destroyed by the Red Hand Commando (RHC) as part of a process overseen by the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD).
Earlier this month it emerged that the loyalist groups had taken moves to begin decommissioning all their weapons -- as the IRA did four years ago.
The move was welcomed by the British and Irish governments at the time, but they said that they were awaiting official confirmation of the disarmament act, and information on the scale of arms cache destroyed, in a formal report from the IICD due to be published in August.
But after news of the decommissioning leaked out, it had been expected that the loyalist groupings would take steps to confirm they had started to destroy their illegal weapons.
The UVF is understood to have carried out a major act of decommissioning, while the UDA's was more small-scale.
The decommissioning was witnessed by General John de Chastelain and IICD officials.
The IICD was established in 1997 to oversee the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons, with those passing illegal weapons to the body granted immunity from prosecution.
The political process was dogged by efforts to secure IRA decommissioning, which was eventually completed in 2005.
The UVF campaign of violence stretches back to the mid-1960s. It killed 550 people during the Troubles, while the UDA, which was formed in 1971, claimed 431 lives.
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- Steven McCaffery
