This weekend I had great difficulty obtaining a copy of the Sunday World. "The UDA told us not to sell it," the young girl behind one till informed me with a matter-of-fact shrug. In other newsagents the owners were less talkative – and no wonder.
These are hard-working people, proud of their independence, and they have been humiliated by thugs who operate above the law. But nobody cares about that, just as nobody seems too bothered by this latest paramilitary campaign to close down an independent newspaper.
Perhaps too much else has been happening this week for it to make the headlines.
On the other hand, when state-sanctioned goon squads menace the free press in Belarus, Turkey or Zimbabwe that generally leads the BBC evening news – although there is plenty else happening in those countries as well.
There is also no point denying that the UDA is a state-sanctioned goon squad while its 'ceasefire' remains officially recognised despite widespread crime, intimidation and violence. So thank God then that our new secretary of state is Peter Hain, international friend of the oppressed and freedom-loving hero of the veldt.
In his previous role as Foreign Office minister for Africa, Mr Hain was a particularly outspoken champion of the press. "One of the major tenets of democracy is freedom of the media," he wrote in The Namibian newspaper in August 2000.
"Governments must continue to show a commitment to freedom of speech, however, uncomfortable it can be at times."
That same month, when Liberian authorities arrested four journalists on trumped-up spying charges, Peter Hain said: "This is an attack on international press freedom and against the whole international climate which favours press freedom." Following the illegal detention of the editor of the Independent newspaper in Ghana in January 2000, Peter Hain said: "The press must be responsible in their reporting but they must also be able to operate, free from fear and persecution."
Most of all though, Peter Hain worried about press freedom in Zimbabwe.
As President Mugabe's state-sanctioned goon squads attacked journalists at The Nation, for example, Peter Hain said: "The violence and disrespect for the rule of law in Zimbabwe should be a matter of concern to the whole international community."
In response, Mugabe's party-controlled tabloid The Mail described Peter Hain as "the wife" of British gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell.
This accusation was of course ridiculous – Peter Tatchell is far too class-conscious to fancy a man who owns a sunbed.
In fact it is Peter Hain's relationship with Robert Mugabe himself which resembles a bad marriage – and which also increasingly resembles his attitude towards the UDA. Peter Hain was a strong supporter of Mugabe in the initially successful years after Zimbabwe's own peace process.
The happy couple only fell out in March 2001 when Mugabe ordered the search of UK diplomatic bags at Harare airport.
This, Peter Hain declared at the time, "was not the action of a civilised country". Which is odd, because if a UDA brigadier walks into a Royal Mail sorting office in Mallusk and demands that the post be opened and searched for his passport, that apparently doesn't threaten civilisation at all. When Mugabe's goons subsequently began occupying white-owned farms, Peter Hain strongly criticised these "pistol to the head seizures". Which is also odd, because if a UDA 'brigadier' seizes a family business by holding a pistol to the owner's head, Peter Hain won't take any action at all.
When Mugabe began deporting his political opponents in 2002, Peter Hain said: "The government will do its best to give practical advice and support to any British nationals who face eviction." Which is really odd, because if a UDA brigadier orders a British person out of their home in Northern Ireland, the secretary of state won't even consider reviewing its ceasefire. Perhaps Peter Hain doesn't want to publicly admit that "constructive engagement seems to have failed" – as he did with Robert Mugabe in January 2001 – because shortly after he admitted this Tony Blair sacked him. Or perhaps he is simply confused by the African origins of the UDA's most Mugabe-like 'brigadier'.
Either way, as the secretary of state clearly won't put the rule of law above his own anti-colonial delusions, then the fact that the UDA is openly transforming Northern Ireland into Southern Rhodesia should be enough to get him off his perfectly tanned behind. Well – shouldn't it?
