Loyalists issue statement claiming end to feud

The leadership of the Ulster Defence Association and the Loyalist Volunteer Force have issued a joint statement claiming the …

The leadership of the Ulster Defence Association and the Loyalist Volunteer Force have issued a joint statement claiming the feud which left three men dead has ended.

The feud was sparked by the murder in September of leading LVF member Stephen Warnock in Newtownards and the wounding of Jim Gray, a senior member of the UDA in East Belfast.

The statement said the LVF leadership now accepted that the East Belfast UDA had played no part in the murder of Mr Warnock.

The statement added: "Both organisations have therefore now resolved any differences which may have existed and have initiated a policy whereby intermediaries have been set up to prevent any further reoccurrence of this sort of conflict arising again."

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After the revenge shooting of Mr Gray a few days after the murder of Mr Warnock, Geoffrey Thomas Gray, 41, who was believed to have had links to the LVF, was shot dead at Ravenhill Avenue in East Belfast.

A third man, 22-year-old Alexander McKinley, died a week after being shot in the head in the Woodstock area of the city.

His death came as the two groups were engaged in mediation to end the shooting war.

At the height of the feud, the Police Service of Northern Ireland set up a special unit with 25 officers working on the dispute.

The wording of the joint statement was agreed after a meeting between LVF and UDA leaders in a Belfast hotel.

It was the third such meeting in the past few days.

The talks followed an offer from the LVF to enter into mediation to bring an end to the violence.

The Ulster Political Research Group which is closely linked to the UDA said that a space should be created to allow a resolution of the conflict.

PA