(Roddy McGregor, Irish News)

The Progressive Unionist Party's Billy Hutchinson says he has been given guarantees that a dispute within the UVF in Derry has ended.

Mr Hutchinson – who acted as Interlocutor between the UVF and the international decommissioning body – said a new regional leadership had been imposed on the Waterside UVF by the paramilitary group's leadership in Belfast.

The move followed fears last week that a dispute within the organisation – believed to include feuding about money – could escalate.

Last week one loyalist source said the dispute centred around the dispersal of proceeds from UVF robberies.

The dispute is understood to have resulted in a number of street fights involving UVF members in the Waterside.

Six people were arrested and later released in the area last Thursday. At the time police said the arrests related to recent crime in the area, but it is understood that the arrests were linked to the feud.

A number of people were reported to have been forced to flee their homes at the height of the dispute. But while Mr Hutchinson said the UVF leadership in Belfast had been told "20 different stories", he said the same leadership now believed the dispute had been resolved.

The former North Belfast assembly member, who offered to act as an intermediary during the dispute, said he believed the new arrangement was accepted by everyone in Derry.

"The UVF in this case moved quickly to try to resolve the problems. The UVF leadership believe that the people who are in dispute have now put their disputes aside and they will now work with the new leadership," he said.

"I have been guaranteed and given assurances that this thing has been put to bed and that the new leadership will make moves to ensure that all of the people who live in Londonderry will feel comfortable with."

This article appeared first in the May 20, 2003 edition of the Irish News.

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