>>>>>> Flash: Loyalists back out of talks, Good Friday Agreement
The loyalist paramilitary 'Ulster Freedom Fighters' announced
today that it was withdrawing support for the Good Friday
Agreement which its representatives signed in 1998.
The UFF, also knoown as the UDA, said: "We can no longer remain
silent in our criticism of an agreement which our membership have
continuously voiced their opposition to and which the vast
majority of the loyalist community have grown to despise."
Meanwhile the PUP, which represents the loyalist UVF, said it has
withdrawn from the talks. The two loyalist organisations have
claimed to be maintaining their "ceasefires", although murders of
Catholics and random sectarian attacks have continued since 1994.
Loyalist violence has escalated again in recent weeks with two
murders and scores of pipe, petrol and blast bomb attacks.
The moves by the UVF and UDA are the latest blows to the peace
process following the resignation as First Minister of Ulster
Unionist leader David Trimble. Talks have continued, but they
are understood to remain deadlocked over unionist demands for IRA
decommissioning and nationalist demands for the full
implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.
The talks near Birmingham in the British midlands are expected to
end this week before the loyalist marching season in the North of
Ireland reaches its climax on Thursday, when tens of thousands
will celebrate an ancient battle victory over Catholics.
Gains for nationalists in recent elections have raised fears
among Protestants that unionists may soon be in a minority in the
Six Counties.
In a statement, the UDA said it found it intolerable that Sinn
Fein had gained "concession after concession, yet there is still
a growing erosion of our culture and heritage.
"This has to stop, we cannot allow this to go any further. There
can be no more concessions to nationalism while the fabric of our
loyalist community is torn asunder."
But the UDA's position is well known by nationalists in North
Belfast, who have come under nightly attack by UDA murder gangs.
Two leading UDA figures have already been returned to jail for
continuing their terror campaign. Others released early under
the terms of the Good Friday Agreement may now follow.
Meanwhile, the Progressive Unionist Party, which speaks for the
rival Ulster Volunteer Force, held an executive meeting in
Belfast at which it announced it was pulling out of the current
phase of the peace process talks.
PUP leader David Ervine denied today that his party had withdrawn
over "a fit of pique" because his small party was "sent home".
But they were clearly angry after returning from talks last
night, giving journalists the thumbs down as they drove away. Mr
Ervine accused Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams of "playing with
words".
"We are advocating withdrawal from this phase of the process
because at the round table session yesterday Sinn Fein would not
give us an answer to what it meant by the `causes of conflict' in
2001," he said.
"That is a perfectly legitimate question but Gerry Adams was
singularly refusing to answer it and until we get that question
answered, we have no way of knowing where republicans are coming
from and what is possible."
Mr Ervine also accused republicans of "adding to their shopping
list of demands" to the British government yesterday but refusing
to reveal their position to them.
c. RM Distribution and others. Articles may be reprinted with credit.
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