WE SAY: UDA/UVF tolerance must end

THERE IS something deeply and fundamentally wrong at the core of this society when it comes to loyalist paramilitaries. And what’s wrong seems so deeply entrenched that it’s hard to see what we can do to get us to a point where we all agree that killing drug dealers has no place in everyday life here.

It seems surreal – insane even – to point out thirty years after the first ceasefire that loyalist paramilitaries still play a central role in the life of communities here, but that is obviously the case. What’s even more surreal, going way beyond insane, is that the very same paramilitary groups that one day criticize some people for drug debts and take benefit books from others who can’t pay back the excessive loans, will be chatting with government officials the next day.

Last week a Stormont committee heard that the PSNI is advising migrants who experience threats and intimidation within loyalist communities to speak to the UDA and the UVF about it. It was perhaps one of the most startling revelations about the PSNI since it replaced the RUC, but after a day of whining we moved on. The same PSNI that views loyalist paramilitaries as an informal part of the criminal justice system oversaw the Orange Order parade past Ardoyne this weekend; the same PSNI that believes that cutthroat drug cartels can play a constructive, informal role in solving migrant issues continues to ‘protect and serve’ a Catholic community that the UVF and UDA have murdered for thirty years.

This week, as plans progressed for an Irish-language primary school in east Belfast, the DUP Education Minister met with the Loyalist Communities Council (LCC) to hear them call for the school to be demolished. The LCC is an umbrella group representing the UDA/UVF.

If we had known, amid the wave of optimism and hope brought about by the ceasefire and the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, that loyalist paramilitaries would be talking to a Minister of Education about raising our children all these years later, would we have considered decentralized government as a solution? destination worth the trip?

Most of us realized a long time ago that the UDA and UVF had no interest in moving from violence to politics or community work. But we watched as unionist politicians continued to assure us that their transition was underway and that occasional forays into drug trafficking, extortion and murder were just bumps in the road.

Thirty years later, it’s time to say: enough is enough. The Irish government is making noises about withdrawing IFI funding for loyalist paramilitaries. That has to happen. But more importantly, the PSNI must start treating the UVF and UDA as criminals, not advisors, and the Stormont Executive must make it clear that all they want to hear from the UVF/UDA is the word goodbye.