Loyalists warned: 'Decommission or face jail'

[Aindriu]

Loyalist paramilitaries who refuse to give up their weapons were warned today they risk being jailed after the British government confirmed it is to scrap decommissioning legislation.

Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward said special laws allowing for legal disarmament will be renewed in February for a further year – but confirmed it will be the last window of opportunity.

In his strongest comments to date, Mr Woodward also warned the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and Ulster Defence Association (UDA) he will make room in prisons to jail those found to have held on to guns.

Full story here.

It's about time!

[code twinkle]

wait a minute...are you saying he said the Britsh Army has to disarm or be jailed?

[Eddie Collins]

Loyalist paramilitaries who refuse to give up their weapons were warned today they risk being jailed after the British government confirmed it is to scrap decommissioning legislation.

Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward said special laws allowing for legal disarmament will be renewed in February for a further year – but confirmed it will be the last window of opportunity.

In his strongest comments to date, Mr Woodward also warned the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and Ulster Defence Association (UDA) he will make room in prisons to jail those found to have held on to guns.

Full story here.

It's about time!

Fair point, but surely they'll just decommission some of their weapons and keep the remainder hidden like the IRA did?

[tiocfaidh]

Loyalist paramilitaries who refuse to give up their weapons were warned today they risk being jailed after the British government confirmed it is to scrap decommissioning legislation.

Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward said special laws allowing for legal disarmament will be renewed in February for a further year – but confirmed it will be the last window of opportunity.

In his strongest comments to date, Mr Woodward also warned the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and Ulster Defence Association (UDA) he will make room in prisons to jail those found to have held on to guns.

Full story here.

It's about time!

Fair point, but surely they'll just decommission some of their weapons and keep the remainder hidden like the IRA did?

That's hardly fair - the IRA may have hung onto the odd gun here or there, but 99% of its arenal was decommissioned.

As for the loyalists, we'll never see wide-spread decommissioning from them because they are such a rag-tag set of groups, with loose structures, that even if a senior loyalist of two orders decommissioning, it will never filter all the way through all the groups. The provos were a disciplined, organised army, and so when the army council decided to decommission, it actually thoroughly happened. Also, there is just not the political will to decommission the loyalists that there was to decommission the PIRA. The british government and the DUP hung PIRA decommissioning over Martin and Gerry's heads as the path to government, and they (Martin and Gerry) knew there was no other way into Stormont. What's to be held over the DUP's heads to make them really pressure the loyalists to decommission? Nothing.

[PatMcL]

Fair point, but surely they'll just decommission some of their weapons and keep the remainder hidden like the IRA did?

That is an interesting point and one that I have not heard before, can you quote your sources that have indicated that the IRA retained some weaponry?

[Eddie Collins]

Fair point, but surely they'll just decommission some of their weapons and keep the remainder hidden like the IRA did?

That is an interesting point and one that I have not heard before, can you quote your sources that have indicated that the IRA retained some weaponry?

Can you or anybody prove that they decommissioned all of them?

[stopthetrain]

Loyalist paramilitaries who refuse to give up their weapons were warned today they risk being jailed after the British government confirmed it is to scrap decommissioning legislation.

Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward said special laws allowing for legal disarmament will be renewed in February for a further year – but confirmed it will be the last window of opportunity.

In his strongest comments to date, Mr Woodward also warned the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and Ulster Defence Association (UDA) he will make room in prisons to jail those found to have held on to guns.

Full story here.

It's about time!

What about the bloody sunday inquiries and the omar bumbing ?

[Kalif]

Fair point, but surely they'll just decommission some of their weapons and keep the remainder hidden like the IRA did?

That is an interesting point and one that I have not heard before, can you quote your sources that have indicated that the IRA retained some weaponry?

You still have some type H tex and drums of DDNP,brought in from Holland in the 90s, detonators and AK47s.

[Gimpanzee]

Can you or anybody prove that they decommissioned all of them?

No more than anyone can prove the opposite. Think about it. Why would they hold onto some? They have no value - in fact they would be a potential liability if they were dicovered, or made available to dissidents. As a bargaining chip, they are worthless. And in whatever unlikely scenario you think they'd need guns, they just need to buy some new ones - not as though they are as hard to come by as they were in the past..

[Wolverine2]

About time.

I can see the crying headlines already from loyalist apologists. Get over it, move on.