UDA campaign to defend Britishness
NEW tensions between loyalists and republicans emerged last night as the UDA said it is to launch a campaign to counter the unabating Sinn Fein threat to British culture.
But in a sign of the changed times, a statement released to the News Letter stressed this response would be non-violent.
The UDA angrily accused Sinn Fein of agitation and propaganda across the Province aimed at "challenging our very (British] existence at every level".
Loyalists and republicans have been working together across interfaces in recent years and developed good communications.
This has helped quell tensions on the peacelines, with UDA, UVF and IRA representatives sitting together on some interface groups.
But the UDA said republican "racism, ignorance and bigotry" has been exposed, particularly during protests at the recent Armed Forces' homecoming parade.
If unchecked, the Sinn Fein crusade was as dangerous to the Union as the 35 years of IRA violence, it added – warning the threat would be faced down "head-on".
UDA leadership sources stressed they were entirely positive and peaceful in their aim and clarified they would retrain members for the fight on a new "battlefield": meaning developing skills in education, politics, social and community work, media promotion and business.
"The violence is over," it was stressed.
They also called for all unionist parties and loyalist groups to engage in roundtable discussions about a 10-year strategy to oppose the threat.
However, the statement, following yesterday's Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) report, conspicuously did not mention if and when the UDA will decommission.
The IMC suggested the Government may have to set a deadline for the destruction of loyalist arms in order to bring the issue to a head.
The UDA instead focused on republicanism stirring up community tensions and creating animosity.
It said: "We need more of our members to participate in the challenges that lie ahead. They must understand that the threat from Irish republicanism and nationalism has not abated; they are challenging our very existence at every level.
"They are challenging through agitation and non-violence but it is every bit as dangerous and must be combated."
The statement, issued to mark Remembrance Day, continued: "Our message to Irish republicanism and Irish nationalism is very simple – they must understand we have our own distinct identity and that we are British, and it is us who will define what we are and who we are, the same as we have come to understand that Irish republicans/nationalists must determine their own identity/nationality."
The UDA said the "Sinn Fein propaganda machine" continues to press for human rights and recognition of the minority community's right to national self determination and identity.
"They should take a lesson out of their own manual and recognise the identity and national self determination of the British people in Ulster," the paramilitary group declared, alleging hypocrisy and sectarianism by Gerry Adams and others.
Specifically of the protests at the homecoming parade, the UDA said "Irish republican racism, ignorance and bigotry" had been exposed by Sinn Fein and Irish dissidents.
"They squandered a massive opportunity to reach out to unionism in a bid to understand us as a people and as human beings, whose only crime is that we are different to them," the statement read.
The statement then focused on unionist politicians – calling on them to do more to represent loyalist working class communities.
The DUP, UUP and TUV have all warned this year of the need to counter the threat to British culture. The DUP has established internal working groups and vowed to support legal challenges to republican attempts to remove British symbols from public buildings
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Weather for Belfast
Tuesday 29 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 12 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
Wind direction: South west
Tomorrow
Light showers
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