Loyalists try to ease tensions in the North
Loyalist paramilitaries in north Belfast have dumped pipe bombs and bullets to be destroyed by the security forces, it emerged tonight.
Army explosives experts defused two devices after being told to go to the hard-line Tigers Bay area of the city.
Component parts, including 15 empty pipes, shotgun cartridges and fuses were also taken away for forensic examination.
Loyalist representatives said the move was part of an Ulster Defence Association initiative to ease tensions in the run-up to Northern Ireland’s volatile marching season. But they insisted it was not an act of disarmament.
One source said: “The UDA leadership decided to defuse tensions and give community workers on the ground the chance to work with police to create a peaceful environment.
“They wanted to help make the marching season as calm as possible, but this was not decommissioning, it was just a gesture of their intent.”
Police working on information received said the devices were found at Alexander Park Avenue at around noon.
A spokesman for the service said: “We welcome the removal of these devices from our community.”
But the nationalist SDLP’s north Belfast representative, Alban Maginness, dismissed it as nothing more than a cynical ploy by the terror grouping.
He said: “This is an obvious stunt by the UDA to pretend that they are trying to assist in some way a reduction in tensions in north Belfast.
“One doesn’t take any comfort or reassurance out of this, but rather the opposite because it still suggests to me that the UDA is both capable and willing to manufacture pipe bombs.
“They have been the standard attack weapon used by the UDA against Catholics in north Belfast.”
