Loyalist announce 12-month ceasefire

A cautious welcome was yesterday extended to the announcement of a 12-month ceasefire by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), the largest loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland.

The UDA, which has been convulsed recently by violent feuding centred on former commander Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair, said yesterday it would observe a year-long period of "military inactivity".

The caution evident in the welcome for the move arises from the fact that the organisation has often broken its word in the past, so that its statements generally carry little credibility.

Nonetheless, there was hope that the group's current predicament might lead to a quieter period in which its activity level would drop and at least some lives be saved.

The group said it would appoint a representative to talk about decommissioning weapons. It made it clear, however, that it would only give up weapons once the IRA had fully disarmed.

It expressed regret for its involvement in the drugs trade, saying: "For those individuals who were known to be members of our organisation and were previously involved in any such behaviour, we apologise."

However, no one believes that the UDA is about to relinquish its prominent position within the Northern Ireland drugs trade. Large sums of money have been generated by such involvement, with senior UDA figures benefiting greatly.

Yet a reduction in the level of UDA violence now seems a real possibility, not because of any loss of militancy but because of the huge disruption, mostly caused by Adair, within the UDA in the past year.

Adair has been reimprisoned, and last month a hard core of his followers fled to Britain. The turmoil caused by the feuding was acknowledged by one UDA figure who said: "We have seen so much hurt inflicted on our own communities."

Yesterday, the nervousness in UDA ranks was obvious when more than a dozen look-outs were posted around the Belfast hotel in which the announcement was made.

The lives lost in the feuding include that of John Gregg, the UDA's particularly hardline north Belfast warlord. The UDA statement said it was going through "an internal review and restructuring mechanism" that will entail major personnel changes.

In recent years the organisation has been the greatest single taker of life in Northern Ireland. The question now is whether it will stick to its word and put an end both to its killings and to the hundreds of pipe-bomb attacks on Catholic homes.

A genuine UDA ceasefire would improve the overall atmosphere and give the negotiations a fair wind. The Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble, described the move as "a positive and welcome development". The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Paul Murphy, said he saw signs of hope in the move, which he described as being in the right direction.