Guns still haunt NI life

Controversial police reform planned as paramilitary prisoners released

By BBC NI chief security correspondent Brian Rowan

In the year 2000, loyalists turned their guns on each other.

In feuding between rival groups on west Belfast's Shankill Road and in north Belfast, seven men were killed in the period between 21 August and 1 November.

More than 200 families - about 600 people - were also driven from their homes.

The infighting between the UDA/UFF and the UVF, was eventually brought to an end in a joint statement on 15 December.

In it, the organisations committed themselves to "an open-ended and all encompassing cessation of hostilities".

At the height of the feud, the convicted UFF leader Johnny Adair was returned to jail when the Northern Ireland Secretary suspended his early release licence.

The Shankill loyalist, who was freed under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement in September 1999, was re-arrested on 22 August and taken to Maghaberry prison.

Johnny Adair was taken back to prison at height of loyalist feud

It was a year too in which the IRA was often in the news.

It was linked to a number of murders, including the shooting dead of the dissident republican Joseph O'Connor in Belfast.

The IRA issued a statement saying it was not involved - a statement not believed by dissident republicans and by senior security sources.

There was some progress on the arms issue but not the type that unionists have been demanding.

The IRA allowed international inspectors to examine a number of its arms dumps and set a context in which it said it would put its arms "completely and verifiably beyond use".

Unionists still demanding moves towards IRA decommissioning

But it accused the British Government of not honouring a deal and of breaking promises on policing and demilitarisation.

No weapons were put beyond use and David Trimble barred Sinn Fein ministers from attending meetings of the North-South Ministerial Council.

Decommissioning continues to plague the process and unionists will again review progress next month.

Dissident threat

The dissident republican so-called Real IRA, which had been on ceasefire since the Omagh bombing in 1998, re-emerged in 2000 and it and the Continuity IRA were linked to a number of attacks on security bases.

A number of arms seized were linked to dissident republicans

There were also incidents in Britain, including a bomb explosion at Hammersmith Bridge and a rocket attack on the headquarters of MI6, which were attributed to dissident republicans.

RUC Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan said the dissidents posed a real and growing threat.

Controversial police reform

On policing, the timetable for change was set out in the implementation plan.

By next April, Special Branch and CID will have been brought under the one roof and each council area should have its own designated police unit.

Next year the first recruits will join the Police Service of Northern Ireland and that title will begin to be used on September 1.

Up to 500 officers will have left the RUC by the end of March as part of the severance arrangements negotiated as a result of the Patten report.

But as the year came to an end, the new policing arrangements had not won the support of the SDLP and Sinn Fein.

The "new beginning" envisaged by Patten is not yet guaranteed.

Prisoner releases

The year 2000 will also be remembered for the closure of the Maze - Northern Ireland's high security prison which has held some of the most notorious paramilitaries.

The last big day of releases was 28 July, when 86 republicans and loyalists were freed.

Among those let out were the Shankill bomber Sean Kelly and the loyalist gang responsible for the Greysteel killings.

A total of 433 prisoners were freed early as part of the Good Friday Agreement.