Loyalist group 're-arming'

Mr Ervine said loyalist confidence was in decline

A leading loyalist politician has indicated that he believes the loyalist paramilitary group, the Ulster Volunteer Force is re-arming.

Progressive Unionist Party leader David Ervine said the paramilitaries were acting in response to claims of republican involvement in a break-in at Belfast's police headquarters in March and the training of rebel forces in Colombia.

The PUP has political links with the UVF, whose ceasefire is still considered by the government and security forces to be intact.

The east Belfast assembly member added that loyalist support for the Good Friday Agreement was continuing to decline.

The failure of implementation or proper implementation or single agenda implementation is the basic problem

David Ervine
PUP leader

"The UVF is standing at the crossroads. They didn't sign up to the Good Friday Agreement, the PUP signed up to the Agreement," he said.

"One could have interpreted from that that they were prepared to accept the exploration for the future.

"I think they are still prepared to accept the exploration.

"The Good Friday Agreement is an inanimate object that in itself is not to blame, the failure of implementation or proper implementation or single agenda implementation is the basic problem," he said.

Mr Ervine added that as far as decommissioning UVF weapons was concerned, the group's current sentiment was "not a bullet, not a stick".

The loyalist group has been under pressure to make progress on putting its arms beyond use following the IRA's second act of decommissioning in April.

The chairman of the nationalist SDLP, Alex Attwood, said Mr Ervine had been forthright about what was happening in the ranks of the UVF.

He said the PUP leader's comments were worrying and that all paramiltaries should be treated in the same way.

"There have been concerns, independent of what the IRA have been doing, about what the UVF have been doing in recent times," he said.

"Last summer, if you recall, a pipe bomb factory was found that was thought to be associated with the UVF and not with the UDA."

He added: "While David Ervine might be saying it is in response to the IRA's alleged activities, other people would say it predates the recent alleged IRA activity."

Last week, Mr Ervine met with the Sinn Fein President, Gerry Adams, to discuss the recent claims concerning IRA activity.

After the meeting, he said the political process was in "a substantial and serious crisis" and said the government must address the issue.