Taken from the bbc.co.uk/news
Last Updated: Thursday, 3 May 2007, 09:01 GMT 10:01 UK 
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UVF statement in full
The UVF has said it will become a civilian organisation
Following a direct engagement with all the units and departments of our organisation, the leadership of the Ulster Volunteer Force and Red Hand Commando today make public the outcome of our three year consultation process.
We do so against a backdrop of increasing community acceptance that the mainstream republican offensive has ended; that the six principles upon which our ceasefire was predicated are maintained; that the principle of consent has been firmly established and thus, that the union remains safe.
We welcome recent developments in securing stable, durable democratic structures in Northern Ireland and accept as significant, support by the mainstream republican movement of the constitutional status quo.
Commensurate with these developments, as of 12 midnight, Thursday 3 May 2007, the Ulster Volunteer Force and Red Hand Commando will assume a non-military, civilianised, role.
To consolidate this fundamental change in outlook we have addressed the methodology of transformation from military to civilian organisation by implementing the following measures in every operational and command area.
Recruitment
All recruitment has ceased; military training has ceased; targeting has ceased and all intelligence rendered obsolete; all active service units have been de-activated; all ordinance has been put beyond reach and the IICD instructed accordingly.
We encourage our volunteers to embrace the challenges which continue to face their communities and support their continued participation in non-military capacities.
We reaffirm our opposition to all criminality and instruct our volunteers to cooperate fully with the lawful authorities in all possible instances.
Moreover, we state unequivocally, that any volunteer engaged in criminality does so in direct contravention of brigade command and thus we welcome any recourse through due process of law.
All volunteers are further encouraged to show support for credible restorative justice projects so that they, with their respective communities, may help to eradicate criminality and anti-social behaviour in our society.
We call on all violent dissidents to desist immediately 
We ask the government to facilitate this process and remove the obstacles which currently prevent our volunteers and their families from assuming full and meaningful citizenship.
We call on all violent dissidents to desist immediately and urge all relevant governments and their security apparatus to deal swiftly and efficiently with this threat.
Failure to do so will inevitably provoke another generation of loyalists toward armed resistance.
We have taken the above measures in an earnest attempt to augment the return of accountable democracy to the people of Northern Ireland and as such, to engender confidence that the constitutional question has now been firmly settled.
In doing so we reaffirm the legitimacy of our tactical response to violent nationalism yet reiterate the sincere expression of abject and true remorse to all innocent victims of the conflict.
Brigade command salutes the dedication and fortitude of officers, NCOs and volunteers throughout the difficult, brutal years of armed resistance.
We reflect with honour on those from our organisation who made the ultimate sacrifice; those who endured long years of incarceration and the loyal families who shared their suffering and supported them throughout.
Finally, we convey our appreciation for their honest forthright exchange with officers, NCOs and volunteers throughout the organisation over the past three years which has allowed us to assume with confidence the position we adopt today. For God and Ulster. Captain William Johnston, Adjutant 
a good step forward i think …
the only problem is they have not handed in weapons but put them ”out of reach” this does not comply with government legislation to hand them in …
Last Updated: Thursday, 3 May 2007, 09:00 GMT 10:00 UK
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UVF must match words with actions
By Vincent Kearney
BBC Northern Ireland home affairs correspondent
The UVF has murdered more than 500 people
The UVF has murdered more than 500 people in its 41 year history.
But on Thursday, the oldest loyalist paramilitary organisation has said its war is over.
Its members have been told that it will cease to exist as a military organisation from midnight.
Senior members of the UVF and its associate group the Red Hand Commando, what they describe as their commanding officers, from across Northern Ireland were told the news before it was made public.
They met behind closed doors in a hall in the Shankill Road area of Belfast on Wednesday night and the contents of the statement that was issued publicly on Thursday morning were revealed for the first time.
‘Out of business’
They were then told to pass on the news to other members of the organisation – the news that the UVF and Red Hand Commando were going out of business.
From midnight they were told, the groups “will assume a non-military, civilianised, role.”
They were also told that all recruitment, training and targeting has ceased, that all “active service units” have been de-activated, and all weapons have been “put beyond reach”.
This move has been a long time in the planning.
The UVF leadership began a consultation process three years ago.
It is claimed that the organisation has almost 5,000 members.
Two thousand of them are described as “active members”, ie those who take part in attacks, or provide logistical support to those who were prepared to do so.
Many of those members attended a series of meetings held across Northern Ireland to discuss the future of the organisation.
Why, they were asked, does the UVF have more members now than it did when it announced its ceasefire in 1994?
Why, almost two years after the IRA issued a formal order to its members ending its campaign of violence, was there a need for the UVF?
The UVF’s leadership could no longer offer any justification for the organisation to continue to exist
Other issues were also discussed, but these were the crucial questions and senior UVF sources say they were surprised by the responses.
They say there was some opposition to suggestions that there was no longer a need for the organisation to exist in its current form, but not as much as they had expected.
In October, the five most senior UVF leaders, its so-called Brigade Command, the equivalent of the IRA Army Council, travelled to Messines in Belgium, where there is a monument commemorating the members of the original UVF who died in the First World War, to discuss the responses to the consultation.
That is when Thursday’s statement began to take shape.
The words have been rewritten over and over again since then, but the general thrust did not change: having accepted that the IRA’s war is over, the UVF’s leadership could no longer offer any justification for the organisation to continue to exist.
Preparing the ground
During the past two weeks Dawn Purvis, the leader of the Progressive Unionist Party, the political representatives of the UVF, embarked on the process of preparing the ground for Thursday’s statement.
She met Secretary of State Peter Hain, Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and a range of other political and church figures to brief them on what to expect.
But it was not all one way traffic.
The government made it clear that, if the statement was to have any credibility, it must declare an end to all criminality within the UVF’s ranks, and address the issue of decommissioning its weapons.
The organisation had always planned to address the issue of criminality in its statement, and not because the government demanded it.
The UVF leadership values its reputation within the loyalist community, not so much the wider unionist community, where it knows it is treated with disdain. The reality is that the UVF is riddled with criminality.
The organisation denies it, but police and other security sources say many of its members are simply gangsters.
The IMC has said the UVF will soon be regarded as a criminal gang
The Independent Monitoring Commission shares that view and its last report warned that the UVF would soon be regarded simply as a criminal gang.
Such remarks touch a raw nerve within the UVF.
The leadership doesn’t want that to be its legacy; it wants to portray the organisation as an army, not a mafia.
That’s why Thursday’s statement stressed that the UVF was opposed to criminality and instructed its members “to cooperate fully with the lawful authorities in all possible instances”.
It added that any member engaged in criminality “does so in direct contravention of Brigade Command and thus we welcome any recourse through due process of law”.
The issue of decommissioning is much less straightforward.
The UVF has consistently ruled it out, and even advised the IRA that it should not decommission its weapons.
But the government made it clear that it needed to see some movement on the issue if it was to treat the statement as credible.
That pressure has clearly worked.
Senior UVF sources said some time ago that its weapons would be put “beyond reach”, but ruled out any role for General John de Chastelain, the man who oversaw the decommissioning of the IRA’s weapons.
But Thursday’s statement says his commission has been made aware of the UVF’s move.
Decommissioning
The big question is: what exactly does “put beyond reach” mean?
Put beyond the reach of everyone? Or will a small group of senior members be charged with protecting the weapons, and potentially have access to them at a future point?
And will the Canadian general be allowed to verify the process, to assure the government and the public that the UVF has done what it says? Another question is, can we believe the UVF?
This is not the first time it has spoken of peace.
The organisation declared a ceasefire in October 1994, but since then it has been blamed for 21 deaths.
In fact, the government has not officially recognised its ceasefire since September 2005.
If Thursday’s statement is borne out in deeds as well as words, this will be remembered as a highly significant day, and bring to an end another bloody chapter of Northern Ireland’s history.
The organisation was responsible for some of the worst atrocities of the Troubles.
The UVF killed the first victims of the Troubles, Catholic civilians John Scullion and Peter Ward, in June 1966.
It also killed the first police officer to die in the Troubles, Constable Victor Arbuckle, a 29-year-old Protestant father-of-two from Newtownstewart who was shot on the Shankill Road during serious rioting in August 1969.
The organisation was also responsible for some of the worst atrocities of the Troubles.
It spawned the notorious Shankill Butchers, who subjected some of their victims to prolonged torture before killing them with weapons like knives, cleavers and axes.
The UVF also carried out the bomb attack on McGurk’s bar in Belfast in December 1971 in which 15 people died, the Dublin and Monaghan bomb attacks which killed 33 people in May 1974, and the attack on The Height’s Bar in Loughinisland in June 1994 in which six people died. If Thursday’s words are matched by deeds, the UVF will fire no more shots and claim no more victims.
Reaction to UVF statement
The Ulster Volunteer Force has announced that it has renounced violence and will cease to exist as a terrorist organisation.
STATEMENT FROM THE INDEPENDENT INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION ON DECOMMISSIONING
Without the commission’s involvement, action on arms does not meet the requirements of the decommissioning legislation nor the agreement reached by the parties in the Belfast Agreement.
We are ready to meet the UVF representative to discuss how we can work together in dealing with arms.
STATEMENT FROM PRIME MINISTER’S SPOKESMAN
We welcome this announcement but as with statements from other paramilitary groups in the past, we await to see it delivered in action.
What is underlined however, once again, is that the peace process has worked. People can see it working in action and next week’s events will underline that further.
STATEMENT FROM THE POLICE SERVICE OF NORTHERN IRELAND
An announcement by any organisation that they intend to cease paramilitary and criminal activity is a positive development.
The police service works tirelessly on a daily basis to create a safer Northern Ireland and we would encourage everyone to fully engage and support the police for the benefit of the whole community.
PETER HAIN, NORTHERN IRELAND SECRETARY
The statement, committing the UVF and Red Hand Commando to abandoning all paramilitary activity, is a further welcome confirmation that Northern Ireland is emerging into a new and positive era.
The recent IMC report acknowledged that the leadership within loyalism wants to move forward and this is an important manifestation of that.
FRED COBAIN, ULSTER UNIONIST PARTY
The UUP has been working for a long time to see the winding down of loyalist paramilitaries and the disposal of their weapons.
We welcome the decision of the UVF/RHC not to continue as a paramilitary organisation, to fully support the lawful authorities and to condemn criminality
JOHN O’DOWD, SINN FEIN
This is a welcome statement if it signals a recognition of the new political reality where there is no room for armed or violent actions.
People who have been the victim of the UVF campaigns across the north, particularly the sectarian campaigns in places like north Antrim, will want to see an end to their violence on the ground.
DAWN PURVIS, PUP
There has been drastic political change over the last number of years, with new political dynamics forged.
This statement by the UVF/RHC is an assurance that they are prepared to be part of this new Northern Ireland in a constructive manner.
ALBAN MAGINNESS, SDLP
There is a lot of progress here and the UVF has fundamentally taken the big step away from terror and criminality that we all asked them to do.
But arms are not really beyond reach while they are under the sole control of the UVF.
PETER ROBINSON, DUP
The statement by the UVF represents another key step towards a secure and lasting peace in Northern Ireland and is to be welcomed.
It points to the standing down of its organisation as a paramilitary force and we look forward to early evidence of this change on the ground.
STATEMENT FROM THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
The broad loyalist community has spent considerable time, as indeed have republicans, in moving towards a position where weapons are no longer part and parcel of everyday life. We have welcomed all attempts made to create a new situation within loyalism and continue to acknowledge the work that is being done.
