Adair dismisses UDA expulsion

UDA-LVF links mural was finished on Wednesday night

Convicted loyalist paramilitary leader Johnny Adair has dismissed the Ulster Defence Association's decision to expel him.

Adair, the leader of one of the organisation's six brigades, was informed after a UDA leadership meeting in east Belfast on Wednesday, that he was out.

The leaders of the organisation's north, south and east Belfast and South East Antrim and North Antrim and Londonderry brigades had not invited Adair or his west Belfast brigade members to the meeting.

A statement issued by the UDA's five other leaders on Wednesday afternoon said "the present brigadier in west Belfast is no longer acceptable in our organisation".

Adair shows his contempt for UDA statement

It followed Adair's increasing links with another loyalist group, the Loyalist Volunteer Force, despite rising tensions between the LVF and other parts of the UDA.

However, Adair dismissed the UDA statement, conveyed to him by his associate and political adviser, John White of the Ulster Political Research Group.

And John White denied that Adair was involved in forging official links with the LVF.

"This was a bolt out of the blue. The action from west Belfast is that this was a brigadiers' meeting on a very important issue, and yet west Belfast wasn't represented."

He added: "There are relationships based on friendships. People who have been friends for most of their lives.

"But that is all it is. This is no formal linkage whatsoever and no organic linkage between the LVF and the UDA."

Tensions

Speaking after Wednesday's meeting, one leadership source said Adair had put the UDA, Northern Ireland's largest loyalist paramilitary organisation, in an "impossible position".

John White: 'No formal linkage between UDA and LVF'

Tensions between the UDA and LVF have resulted in the murder of senior LVF member Stephen Warnock and the wounding of a senior UDA member Jim Gray in Belfast within the past three weeks.

The UDA leadership source highlighted a number of areas where Adair's movements made his position in the organisation untenable.

Adair attended the funeral of Stephen Warnock which was held after the LVF shot and wounded senior east Belfast UDA member Gray in retaliation for the murder.

Adair was also accused of meeting senior LVF members after a south Belfast UDA meeting last Friday.

And this week, Adair's so-called 'C' company in the lower Shankill Road, was behind the painting of a new joint UDA-LVF mural - finalised on Wednesday night as darkness fell.

The other UDA leaders saw Adair's painting of his colours on the Shankill as evidence that he was siding with that organisation.

Implications

In the Shankill area, it will now be up to the other two UDA companies how they wish to align themselves.

In the past, such as during UDA 'C' company's bloody feud with the Ulster Volunteer Force in the summer of 2000, the other two companies largely kept out of Adair's affairs.

Adair (right) and John White (left) recently met Northern Ireland secretary with other loyalists

The UDA leadership's decision could also have knock-on effects on the UDA's position in the wider Northern Ireland context.

The UDA and LVF ceasefires were declared void by Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid in 2001 because of increasing sectarian violence in Belfast and the LVF murder of a journalist.

However, loyalists, including Adair, recently met Dr Reid. One of the areas discussed was the state of the ceasefires.

Adair, who was convicted, and served five of a 16-year sentence for directing terrorism, has recently been portrayed as the pro-peace process by his associates, including John White.

However, he has in the past been singled out by security force intelligence as the root of violent upsurges, including that which led to his return to prison in the summer of 2000 after he violated his Good Friday Agreement early release terms.