UDA upsurge in violence

Members of the UFF/UDA in a display of strength in Belfast

The RUC chief constable has condemned an increase in the violent and criminal activities of the loyalist paramilitary Ulster Defence Association.

Sir Ronnie Flanagan has been briefing Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson on the security situation following an upsurge in attacks on Catholic homes in towns around Northern Ireland.

Extra police and military patrols have been deployed in Larne, County Antrim and there have been a number of attacks against Catholic families in Coleraine, County Londonderry.

The UDA has also been linked to a number of recent murders, and last week to a bomb attack on the offices of Social Democratic and Labour Party assembly member Alban Maginness in Belfast.

The UDA is a very loose collection of individuals

Sir Ronnie Flanagan

In an interview with BBC Radio Ulster, Sir Ronnie said he was in "no doubt" that members of the UDA - the largest loyalist paramilitary organisation in Northern Ireland - were involved in the attacks in Larne.

He said the activities of the UDA were increasingly worrying because, while the organisation's leadership may not have sanctioned the Larne attacks, the UDA lacked "central direction and control".

"The UDA is itself a very loose collection of individuals, and people should remember that it remains a criminal terrorist offence to be a member of that organisation and indeed of other proscribed organisations," he said.

Withdrawl of support danger

The chief constable said it was not his responsibility to determine whether any paramilitary organisation's ceasefire had been breached.

"It is for others to consider whether terrorist organisations' own definitions have been breached or otherwise.

"However, I would remind the public that although these organisations perhaps adhere to their definitions of cessations of military operations and similar definitions that they apply, they continue to be engaged in a whole range of other of criminal activities which are absolutely to be abhorred."

Sir Ronnie Flanagan blamed loyalists for recent pipe bomb attacks

Referring to recent indications that the UDA as an organisation was considering withdrawing its support from the 1998 Good Friday Agreement peace accord, Sir Ronnie said that was a "danger".

But he said he hoped the UDA would not go back to war.

"The people of Northern Ireland have been subjected to far too much of that for 30 years. It serves no purpose except the evil purpose that these people seek to pursue themselves," he said.

Catalogue of violence

The UDA has been linked to the Belfast murder in January of George Legge, a former senior UDA member who had reportedly fallen out of favour with the organisation.

The organisation was blamed for murdering another former member James Rocket in Belfast, in December.

It was also linked to the murder in December of a 30-year-old Catholic building contractor, Gary Moore, who was shot dead on a building site in Newtownabbey.

One of its most notorious members, convicted UFF leader Johnny Adair, was refused early release in January, after he was re-arrested in August 2000. He had been given early release from prison under the agreement a year previously.

Adair, who is serving a sentence for directing terrorism, was returned to prison on Mr Mandelson's orders after he received an intelligence report from the RUC.

Johnny Adair: Jailed UFF leader was refused release

The report said Adair had been involved in raising tensions in a feud between the UDA and the rival organisation Ulster Volunteer Force in July which resulted in seven men being shot dead and more than 200 families being displaced from the Shankill area of west Belfast.

Detailing Adair's "preparation, instigation and organisation of terrorist activity" since his release, the report alleged he had forged links with the loyalist splinter group, the Loyalist Volunteer Force, and was involved in heightening tensions in interface areas.

It also said he was involved in the illegal drugs trade and in acquiring weapons.

Political origins

The UDA called its ceasefire under the Combined Loyalist Military Command, following the IRA ceasefire in 1994.

At the time its spokesmen said it was pro-talks and pro-agreement - something that helped to make its jailed members eventually eligible for the agreement's early release scheme.

Its political ally is the Ulster Democratic Party, but its members did not gain any seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly elections.

Gary McMichael: UDP leader considering position

UDP leader Gary McMichael said last week that he was considering leaving the party, because he felt it was becoming anti-agreement.

The UDA was a legal organisation until 1992 when the then Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Patrick Mayhew proscribed it as evidence mounted that its members were carrying out killings and using the name of the Ulster Freedom Fighters as a cover.

Formed in 1971, and drawing its membership from traditional Protestant working class areas such as Belfast and Lisburn and organising itself along military lines, the UDA was an umbrella organisation for loyalist "defence" groups and had tens of thousands of members at its peak.