AN INDEPENDENT REPORT RELEASED TODAY says the UVF sanctioned the murder of loyalist Bobby Moffett despite a ceasefire between the groups.
Moffett, 43, was shot dead on the Shankhill Road in Belfast at around 1pm on 28 May in front of a large number of passers-by.
He was involved in the Red Hand Commando movement, a paramilitary loyalist group linked to the UVF.
The Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) says that UVF leaders had known about the killing in advance and could have prevented it, but did not.
The Belfast Telegraph writes today that the report’s findings “won’t be good news for the peace process”, as it undermines the UVF’s decommissions statement. The UVF said in 2007 that it was committed to becoming a civilian organisation and said it had completed decommissioning in June 2009.
The IMC says that the murder doest not blind it to the “progress the UVF has made hitherto”, nor did it mean that the organisation’s transformation was being reversed.
However, according to the IMC, “The murder represents a serious backward step after a period when all paramilitary groups other than dissident republicans had moved decisively away from violence.”
The report adds:
The murder also has potential implications for the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) and for the role which the UVF will play or believes it is entitled to play in future, and so possibly for the lives and safety of people, including those associated with the organisation as Mr Moffett was.
We do not think that these issues should await our next full report, which the two Governments will not be able to publish before November 2010.
Justice Minister Dermot Ahern welcomed the publication, saying it was clear from the report where responsibility for the “callous murder” lies:
Such behaviour clearly has no part to play in the future of the people of this island. Adherence to the principle of non-violence is an absolute and essential requirement for all organisations who wish to show a commitment to peaceful and democratic principles.
A police investigation into Moffett’s death is ongoing.
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