A HARDLINE loyalist group linked to the UDA has poured scorn on a new paramilitary initiative designed to bring them into the political process.
The Loyalist Communities Council was launched earlier this week in Belfast by representatives from the UDA, UVF and the Red Hand Commando.
However, cracks had already started to appear yesterday after the Ulster Political Research Group in north Antrim appeared to reject the initiative, which also excludes the breakaway south-east Antrim UDA faction.
The UPRG offers political analysis to the UDA.
In recent years the UDA in north Antrim has been accused of a string of shootings including the murder of Protestant man Brian McIlhagga in Ballymoney in January.
Posting on social media yesterday, the north Antrim branch of UPRG said: “So people in our community want us to roll over and leave the stage.
“Are you rite (sic) in the head folks?
“To anyone questioning North Antrim, Londonderry and Tyrone commitment. To quote other people. ‘We haven't gone away you know’.”
Earlier this week the group also urged supporters "not to get too worried about this initiative".
“North Antrim, Londonderry and Tyrone have not sold out in the last 20 odd years since flawed GFA was implemented,” it said.
”Money will not buy us this time round either."
The group added that it was happy to stand outside the process.
”If we stand alone so be it,” it said.
“But saying that, most loyalists we have contact with feel exactly the same as our area.
“Thirty pieces of silver we don't want.”
Two representatives from each of the main loyalist paramilitary groups - the UDA, UVF and Red Hand Commando - will sit on the umbrella group known the Loyalist Communities Council.
It said it would “eschew all violence and criminality" and those who continue those activities will be “disowned and should be aware that they will not be permitted to use the cover of loyalism”.
East Derry SDLP assembly member John Dallat dismissed the initiative as being about money and said the UDA in north Antrim and Derry "are responsible over the years for more than 20 murders".
“In recent times they are still active and are still determined to be the alternative police force.
"They remain a serious threat to law and order and are up to their necks in criminal activity.”
Independent nationalist councillor Padraig McShane, who blamed the UDA for a fire bomb attack on his Ballycastle home last year, also said he believed north Antrim will remain outside the process.
He added that he had concerns about MI5 and PSNI handling of UDA members in north Antrim and Coleraine.
