Dee Stitt proposal to Stormont to fund wind-down of UDA

In an interview with the News Letter, the Charter NI chief executive – whose home was raided by the police two weeks ago but who repeatedly denied allegations that he remains the UDA commander in North Down – said there was a need for a body to monitor the wind-down of the UDA “to give that programme credibility”.

The former loyalist prisoner, jailed for armed robbery and possession of a firearm but released in 1997, said that the application was made under section B4 of the former Stormont Executive’s action plan from the Fresh Start Agreement between the DUP, Sinn Fein and the government.

That section provides for “a fund to support ambitious initiatives aimed at building capacity in communities in transition”, to be “designed in collaboration with stakeholders with relevant experience and expertise”.

Mr Stitt said: “With the former armed group, the east Belfast UDA ... we’ve a five-point plan, submitted already to The Executive Office which we submitted into their overarching action plan because that’s what the process was.”

He said that the plan “still is to be approved within the government department” and would involve “a budget attached for delivery” by Charter.

When asked if the plan was for Charter to run a process which would remove the UDA from east Belfast, he said: “Yes. Helping the UDA move on.”

He said that there was a proposed timeframe of three years for that process.

When asked if it would be the end of the UDA in east Belfast, he said: “They would be moved into a civilian commemorative group for the ones that want to ... for the ones that don’t [he made a gesture signifying ‘get out’].”

He said the proposal, which was submitted two months ago, was “budgeted” and was ready to begin once approved by civil servants. He said it was “key” that there would be “transparency” and “accountability” around the process.

However, the veteran loyalist complained that other areas, such as south Belfast, home of UDA leader Jackie McDonald, could not partake in the government programme because it is not one of eight eligible ‘areas of focus’ chosen by the authorities.

Rejecting long-standing allegations – including from the BBC’s Spotlight investigative programme – that he remains heavily involved in illegal activity, Mr Stitt claimed that “all this attention is hampering transition” because other loyalists are wary about leaving illegality due to the questions which he faces.

He said there is a need for “a definition of paramilitary activity”, asking “what is paramilitary activity – is it everything?”

Even Charter NI’s most vocal critics accept that it does some laudable work in one of the most deprived areas of Belfast. However, the organisation, which employs 16 people has been dogged by multiple allegations, including that it received large sums of public money under a process which lacked transparency and which involved some senior DUP figures, at a time when the DUP was attempting to regain the support of loyalists in east Belfast.

Mr Stitt said that he fully supports the PSNI moving against any loyalist involved in crime, something he insisted was only the work of individuals, rather than being authorised by paramilitary bosses. He caveated that support, however, by saying: “I fully support them [the police]; the only thing I didn’t support, obviously, is a political policing element to the paramilitary crime task force, coming an raiding my house a week before the statement [by loyalist leaders, opposing crime] was given out.”

• In Monday’s News Letter: David Stitt on his relationship with the DUP and the PSNI raid on his home a fortnight ago.