The Loyalist Volunteer Force has denied that it had broken its ceasefire and was implicated in killing the Lurgan solicitor, Rosemary Nelson.
The denial followed a warning from the Northern Secretary, Mo Mowlam, that she was ready to take action if there was evidence linking paramilitary groups on ceasefire to the death of the Lurgan solicitor in March.
But Pastor Kenny McClinton, who has been acting as a link to the LVF said that the organisation was denying involvement and it's ceasefire was intact.
The booby trap bomb attack, which killed Mrs Nelson in March, was, at the time, claimed by the Red Hand Defenders. Now, however, according to a BBC report, security forces in the North have evidence linking the killing to the Loyalist Volunteer Force. The RUC reportedly, have intelligence information identifying the bomb-maker and linking members of the LVF to the attack. The LVF, led by Billy Wright until he was shot dead by the INLA in the Maze prison, has been on ceasefire since last May, and became the first and, so far, only paramilitary group to decommission, when it handed over a small number of weapons for destruction.
Earlier, the Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said that he was not surprised by the report. He said that the LVF and the UDA have been involved in over 150 gun and bomb attacks on nationalists since Christmas. Speaking on Morning Ireland, he said that there had been a realignment within Loyalism and that elements of the UDA and LVF had come together in a bid to bring down the Good Friday Agreement.
However, Gary McMichael, the leader of the Ulster Democratic Party, which has strong links with the UDA, disputed Mr. Adams’ claims. He accused the Sinn Féin President of being mischievous and claimed that Sinn Féin was being selective in the violence they were highlighting. Ulster Unionist, Michael McGimpsey, described the report as a very serious development, with obvious ramifications for the political process.
