Downing Street Says » Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF)

» Thursday, May 3, 2007

Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF)

The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) started with comment on the UVF statement this morning. The PMOS said that we welcomed this announcement, but as with statements from other paramilitary groups in the past we will wait to see it delivered in action. What it underlined however, once again, was that the peace process has worked. People can see it working in action. Next week’s events will underline that further.

Asked to what extent the lack of decommissioning plans in the UVF statement had on the credibility of their intentions, the PMOS said that the judgement will come whenever the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) reports on whether the UVF are delivering on what they have said. This is one of the things that we want to see what actually happens in reality. The IMC just last week reported two things. One, yet again, that the IRA was fully living up to its commitments, but two, also there is a desire on the loyalist side to move away from violence and away from criminality. What we need to see is how today’s statement is translated into action. What is very clear is that the generation that lived through the troubles, not just wants to stop the violence, but recognises that the only way forward is through politics, and politics means respect for the rule of law, but also recognition that all sides have to work together. That is why then peace process has worked. That is what it has delivered.

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