The Loyalist Volunteer Force has said its war is over forever, the London Times reports. The paramilitary group said it would not return to conflict and would eventually disband, even if the IRA ended its ceasefire. The LVF also pledged to surrender a "small but very real amount of arms" within two weeks if the British government recognised its six-month-old ceasefire. It also wanted the government to make its prisoners eligible for an early release scheme under which other convicted paramilitaries are already being freed.
The group said it could destroy its weapons before television cameras. "Let the people see it's not a game, that it's serious," an LVF army council member was quoted as saying. The LVF embarked on a spree of violence earlier this year after its leader, Billy Wright, known as "King Rat", was murdered in the Maze prison by INLA inmates. The LVF did not renounce violence in time for its prisoners to benefit from the early release scheme that was part of the Belfast Agreement. It has since made strenuous efforts to have its imprisoned members included.