UVF chiefs met Archbishop Welby and former Secretary of State Peter Mandelson
Secret peace talks between government officials and loyalist and republicans are expected to recommend millions of pounds of funding for their arms length bodies, Ciaran Barnes reported in Sunday Life – a stable-mate of the Belfast Telegraph.
His report continues –
The revelation will further enrage victims groups who only learned of the negotiations when Sunday Life revealed in October how UVF chiefs Bunter Graham and Harry Stockman met the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and former Secretary of State Peter Mandelson.
It has since emerged that other summits were held at the church leader’s Lambeth Palace residence in London with ex-IRA prisoner Sean ‘Spike’ Murray, academics and senior police, including one on November 2.
Central to the discussions were how to deal with legacy issues and financial support for projects in loyalist and republican areas.
This, they argue, will help paramilitaries move from criminality into established community roles. The money will come from the government’s £50million Fresh Start package to end paramilitarism.
A UVF source told Sunday Life: “We expect the government to commit to a funding package stretching for at least five years to help members of the organisation transform into the ACT Initiative (Action for Community Transformation).
“This will ensure former paramilitaries can transition into community roles with confidence.”
ACT was registered as a charity in 2017 and last year pulled in £290,000 of public funding.
Republicans are also seeking a slice of the same cash pie and like loyalists are asking for around £5m of funding for their projects.
Victims campaigner Kenny Donaldson has branded the meetings a “new legacy forum” and warned that “innocent victims and survivors of terrorism won’t be railroaded by a political agenda”.
But yesterday two men behind the November 2 meeting on legacy issues defended the event and said no political parties had been invited.
Londonderry city centre manager Jim Roddy and Rev Harold Good (photos above), a former president of Ireland’s Methodist Church, said it was an extension of years of work on “peace process-related issues” and a continuation of “serious conversations relating to legacy and our troubled past”.
They described it as “a seminar” on a report by Queen’s University academic Kieron McEvoy. Its contents include a scenario in which zero jail time could be served for convictions in Troubles cases. There will be another meeting this week.
Report courtesy of Sunday Life and Ciaran Barnes