|
|
|
(by Ed Moloney, Sunday Tribune)
Elements in the Ulster Defence Association in Belfast are now thought to have been involved in the car bomb attack which last week killed the Lurgan-based solicitor Rosemary Nelson, according to Loyalist sources in the city.The participation of the UDA in the killing, largely in the form of dissident sympathisers from West and North Belfast the sources said, is being seen in loyalist circles as evidence of a significant and potentially dangerous re-alignment amongst paramilitary groupings opposed to the Good Friday Agreement.
The sources said this and the killing of Rosemary Nelson led directly to the St Patrick's Day killing on the Shankill Road of Red Hand Defender leader Frankie Curry almost certainly at the hands of members of the Ulster Volunteer Force which along with its political wing, the Progressive Unionist Party still supports the Belfast Agreement.
Although the UVF has indirectly denied responsibility and while the RUC has so far not pointed the finger at the group there are few in Belfast's Loyalist underworld who do not believe the UVF was responsible.
A senior member of the PUP and a relative of Curry is being openly accused in dissident Loyalist circles of setting up the killing. Curry, who got out of prison a day earlier after serving three months for driving offences, was said to be on his way to visit this relative in a drinking club when he was ambushed, according to these claims.
In a statement last week the Red Hand Defenders (RHD) theatened to kill this PUP official along with the UVF's Chief of Staff. The RHD is largely composed of dissident members of the Red Hand Commandos, a small but deadly group with long time links to the UVF, who left that organisation after threats were made against the life of the Portadown Loyalist, Billy Wright by mainstream Loyalists because of his opposition to the peace process.
Although the Rosemary Nelson killing was claimed by the Red Hand Defenders it is believed the UDA supplied the sophisticated detonating device which triggered the bomb under her car, Loyalists sources said. Prior to this the RHD's attacks had shown no evidence of this type of capability.
The UDA, using its cover name the Ulster Freedom Fighters, has used such devices, known as a mercury tilt switch, before in under car bomb attacks early last year on a republican in North Belfast and an alleged drug dealer in county Down. The republican escaped death but the drug dealer was killed. Prior to these attacks only the IRA and the INLA had access to such technology.
Evidence of the suspected re-alignment of Loyalist groups was visible at yesterday's funeral of Curry on the Shankill Road when leading lights associated with Billy Wright's Loyalist Volunteer Force marched alongside senior UDA figures from Belfast including the organisation's West Belfast Commander in a show of sympathy and support for the slain Loyalist.
The same UDA commander had placed flowers at the spot where Curry was shot with the message "murdered by cowards". He and another prominent UDA dissident who is still awaiting release from jail under the terms of the Good Friday deal put death notices in the Belfast Telegraph stating that Curry had been killed "by the enemies of Ulster".
Leaders of the LVF, the Red Hand Defenders, the Orange Volunteers as well as dissident UDA members and representatives of smaller and rural Loyalist groups are said to have met in the wake of Curry's killing.
With fears of a Loyalist feud at a high point one particular allegation circulating in dissident circles could add fuel to an already volatile fire. This is that the shooting of Curry may also have happened in order to take the heat out the situation caused by Rosemary Nelson's death and in particular may have reduced the pressure on the Provisional IRA to take retaliatory action.
While the effect of the Rosemary Nelson and Frankie Curry killings could be to destabilise the Good Friday Agreement from Loyalist quarters there is also evidence of renewed Provisional IRA activity which could, if acknowledged by the authorities, threaten Sinn Fein's place in the peace process under the terms of the Mitchell Principles.
Two large drink robberies, a £500,000 spirits raid on a warehouse in Lurgan, Co Armagh and a £70,000 drinks hijacking in Belfast last week were both believed to have been carried out by IRA units according to reliable sources. So far neither the RUC nor the Northern Ireland Office have made public their belief that the IRA was responsible.