10 July 2001

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UFF cessation over for some time

Responding to the UFF statement in which the group claims to have withdrawn support for the Good Friday Agreement Sinn Fein Chief Whip Alex Maskey said ``It has been the Sinn Fein view for some time that the UDA/UFF cessation had ended and that they were filling the political vacuum created by Mr. Trimble's subversion of the political institutions with loyalist violence.''

Mr. Maskey said:

``The reality on the ground for some time has been the UFF orchestrating and carrying out attacks on Catholics. This flies in the face of the promise contained in the Good Friday Agreement to live free from sectarian harassment and threat.

``Today's statement may result in an end to the fiction of the UFF and the UDA using their flags of convenience the Red Hand Defenders and the Orange Volunteers. This has been the position since the loyalist killing spree of January 1998 when numerous Catholics were killed by the UFF using these flags.

``It is clear that the UFF/UDA have increasingly filled the political vacuum created by Mr. Trimbleπs failure to show the necessary political leadership and his subversion of the political institutions with nightly attacks on isolated Catholics.''

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