UDA unit seeks £8m to become community organisation
Loyalists revealed today that they want more than £8m (€11.8m) from the British government to transform a notorious paramilitary unit into a peacetime community development body.
But strategists also claimed the new Beyond Conflict initiative could take up to five years to end all terrorist activities by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA)’s South East Antrim Brigade.
They have set out nine implementation plans on a range of issues and predicted the initiative could create 74 jobs and 432 social programmes.
The blueprint for standing down a paramilitary grouping guilty of some of the North's worst murders has been devised separately from the rest of the UDA, from which the South East Antrim wing has split.
Tommy Kirkham, an independent unionist councillor who has himself quit the UDA-aligned Ulster Political Research Group, told supporters gathered at a launch in Carrickfergus, Co Antrim, today that terrorism is no longer acceptable in any modern society.
He said: “We as community representatives who provide analysis to a loyalist paramilitary group have finally created the confidence to end paramilitary activity for good and to transform South East Antrim Ulster Defence Association into a community-orientated organisation that can meet the challenges of the future.
“We believe that with Beyond Conflict as the transformation mechanism and working in partnership with those from a paramilitary background we can succeed in bringing about an end to all paramilitary activity and structures within a five-year period."
The implementation plans include initiatives on drugs, housing, employment, prisoners, race relations and culture, murals, paramilitary activity, the Ulster-Scots language and attempts to ease tensions at interface districts and peace lines between Protestant and Catholic communities.
It has been estimated that the costs of the overall project could be close to £8.5m (€12.5m) and the Beyond Conflict group are hoping to secure financing through the British Department for Social Development.
Even though the UK Social Development Minister, David Hanson, did not attend the launch, Mr Kirkham insisted the plans were in place and it was now up to the British government to see whether it could give the backing needed.
He also revealed 10 paramilitary murals across the South East Antrim district were removed yesterday to coincide with the new initiative and claimed a further 25 would come down within the next fortnight.
One of the biggest challenges for the new body will be to win over a sceptical public.
The UDA’s South East Antrim Unit carried out a litany of sectarian killings under the orders of former leader John Gregg. Gregg was murdered near Belfast docks in February 2003 during a violent feud with supporters of rogue UDA chief Johnny “Mad Dog” Adair.
But the optimism that it could follow through on a promised new beginning was strengthened when community worker David Warwick, who deals with drug addicts in Ballymena, Co Antrim – a town bedevilled with heroin problems – turned up to support the launch.
He said: “I have seen 27 young people that I know well buried because of heroin, so I’m willing to give this a chance. These guys are going to be watched every step they make and if they’re caught dealing in drugs they know it will be seen as a farce.
“But it’s easy blaming the paramilitaries for dealing in drugs. It’s more of a criminal mafia that’s really involved.”
