Government dismisses UVF demand for members to be issued with personal protection guns
Government negotiators have dismissed UVF demands for senior members to be issued with personal protection weapons.
The outlandish request is believed to have been dismissed out of hand as a condition for the terror group to finally transition away from paramilitary activity.
The UVF have been locked in discussions with government negotiators for a number of years and are understood to be nearing a position where they can announce their disbandment.
Early obstacles included demands for immunity from prosecution for historical conflict-related crimes.
The contentious Legacy Act has virtually removed any likelihood of prosecution, even should the Labour government honour its manifesto commitment and repeal the act.
Twenty-seven years after the Good Friday Agreement secured peace, there is no legal framework for decommissioning, leaving negotiators tying to find a verifiable way to show weapons have been put beyond use.
Armed UVF men on the streets of Belfast during the Troubles
There is an acceptance that any form of decommissioning will only be windrow dressing in any deal to stand down – access to weaponry doesn't present any difficulty for criminal gangs.
The streets are awash with guns, the sticking point for the UVF are weapons that might have a forensic history linking them to past crimes.
But it's is their demand for leading paramilitary figures to be allowed to carry personal protection weapons (PPW) that has raised eyebrows.
In Northern Ireland, individuals can legally possess firearms, including handguns, for personal protection under specific circumstances.
The final arbiter is the PSNI who grant firearms certificates for personal protection if there's a real and immediate risk to the applicant's life.
Police must be happy a gun is deemed a necessary and proportionate measure.
Applicants must demonstrate a 'good reason' and undergo thorough checks, including medical and law enforcement records.
The latter would appear to rule out anyone with a paramilitary history. PPWs were commonplace during the conflict, with public figures including politicians, members of the judiciary and members of the civil service being given a handgun.
There has been precedents with a number of leading paramilitary figures allowed to carry PPWs.
There has been speculation that the UVF was ready to make a declaration as early as this autumn. Optimism was dampened when it emerged they had demanded to be allowed to retain an armed force of around 240 men, in their words, to protect the upper echelons of the terror group.
The Sunday World understands they have now modified their demands and scaled them down to a call for a small number of PPWs to be issued which would mean UVF paramilitaries legally carrying guns.
Security sources have told us the proposal is a non-starter.
'It would be unthinkable to strike a deal that would legally put guns in the hands of terrorists, they're gong to have to find a way round that,' one said.
Loyalist sources have told us there is anger at the top of the UVF that bargaining positions are finding their way into the public domain.
John 'Bunter' Graham
One source, who has intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the UVF, said only a handful of people from Chief of Staff John 'Bunter' Graham down would have any knowledge of the content of discussions with British government representatives.
As previously reported, it is known that a sizeable number of UVF members and sections of the UDA have been negotiating a pathway out of the paramilitaries, but do not represent the entirety of the organisations.
They are believed to be close to agreeing the terms of their transition but their priority in discussions has been to maintain the flow of public money into community-based jobs, many of which are occupied by paramilitary members, and immunity from prosecution for historical crimes.
In February it was announced that the British and Irish governments were to jointly appoint 'an Independent Expert to carry out a short scoping and engagement exercise to assess whether there is merit in, and support for, a formal process of engagement to bring about paramilitary group transition to disbandment. This will include examining what could be in scope of such a formal process'.
Lord Alderdice, the former Alliance Party leader who was chair of the Independent Monitoring Commission, said talks about loyalist transition should stop.
'A halt should be called, and you can't call a halt now sooner than today,' he said. 'There comes a point when you have to say no, this hasn't been delivered.'
The Sunday World understands a sticking point in discussions are calls for the UVF to be de-proscribed so that the name can continue to be used legally at memorial and other events.
And also in the naming of veterans clubs, the complication being that those who will continue to use the UVF name as a cover for their involvement in drugs and other crimes.
UVF gunman
Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 21st
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