Sources close to the UVF tell me that the group’s leadership is close to making a deal with the British government on what is being referred to as a “General Order of Disbandment.”
I have been told how the UVF Brigade Staff has explicitly requested the retention of 30-40 active ‘volunteers’ in each of their “battalion areas” to act as a “praetorian guard” – or “Close Protection team” in security parlance – for its more prominent members.
These small cadres will be known as “veterans associations.”
This is seen by leading members of the group as a necessary means of “dealing with the issue of criminality.”
The revelation comes hot on the heels of what a senior source inside the Loyalist Communities Council (LCC) told BBC Spotlight in June.
The source said loyalist paramilitaries were “on course to be concluded this autumn, with an announcement of the complete dismantling of all paramilitary structures.”
Readers will know how I have been sceptical of talk of “group transition”, for years used as a cover for business as usual.
As Lord Alderdice told the BBC recently, the transition process was “not working.”
“A halt should be called, and you can’t call a halt now sooner than today.
“There comes a point when you have to say no, this hasn’t been delivered.”
“It’s not going to be delivered. And, actually, by continuing we are making it worse.”
I am reliably informed this new attempt to put the UVF paramilitary group into ‘cold storage’ will not involve any new decommissioning initiative.
Despite the UVF having instigated a disarmament process in 2009, it is believed they retain an array of handguns, machine guns and assault rifles.
This will undoubtedly lead to fears about a smaller, albeit truncated paramilitary gang remaining deeply embedded in deprived and marginalised communities.
Given the impeccable credentials of this author, and the BBC Spotlight team, I think we should greet this breaking news with a degree of cautious optimism.
More when I get it…
Should have be disarmed and disbanded years ago ! The rhetoric of protecting the unionist communities is long known to be a farce. The UvF are well known to be criminals and forcing the good unionist people into prostitution drugs robbery and intimidation .
The republicans adhered to disarming and disbanding the PIRA showing the proscribed loyalist paramilitaries to have no intentions of peace in our country.