Alliance Leader David Ford has criticised the failure of the Secretary of State to take firm action against the UVF.
David Ford said:
“The unwillingness of the Secretary of State to take firm action against the UVF is outrageous. To claim that he is opposed to “quick procedural fixes” is pathetic in the face of the current terror campaign being waged by the UVF.
“This sounds like the old argument – that a ceasefire only concerned actions against the state or ‘the other side’. Has the NIO forgotten paragraph 13 of their Joint Declaration, which recognised that the full range of illegal paramilitary behaviour that must stop?
“Recent victims of the UVF have mostly been Protestants, but this does not make the UVF behaviour any more acceptable. Every citizen in Northern Ireland should have their right to life and liberty upheld by the state.
“It is time the Secretary of State took firm and resolute action against all those who threaten any part of this community, rather than washing his hands of the problem.”
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