What has John Reid announced?
Secretary of State John Reid has declared the ceasefires of the Ulster Defence Association/Ulster Freedom Fighters and the Loyalist Volunteer Force to be over. The decision has come two weeks after Mr Reid warned that he was on the cusp of declaring the UDA/UFF ceasefire over. He changed his mind after being told that the organisation’s leaders had recognised the damage they were doing and would order their members to halt violence. Mr Reid said that he was monitoring the UDA’s activities on an hourly basis and they have finally failed his test. Why does this announcement matter? The Secretary of State has a responsibility under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 to monitor the activities of paramilitary organisations and judge the state of their respective ceasefires. Legislation requires Dr Reid to “specify” that an organisation has broken its ceasefire if he believes, based on events and security intelligence, that its members are involved in violence of an orchestrated
