Northern Irish loyalist paramilitaries withdraw support for 1998 peace
deal
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[March 04, 2021]
By Guy Faulconbridge and Amanda Ferguson
LONDON/BELFAST (Reuters) - Northern Irish
loyalist paramilitary groups have told British Prime Minister Boris
Johnson they are temporarily withdrawing support for the 1998 peace
agreement due to concerns over the Brexit deal.
While the groups pledged "peaceful and democratic" opposition to the
deal, such a stark warning increases the pressure on Johnson, his Irish
counterpart Micheál Martin and the European Union over Brexit.
Northern Ireland’s 1998 peace deal, known as the Belfast or Good Friday
Agreement, ended three decades of violence between mostly Catholic
nationalists fighting for a united Ireland and mostly Protestant
unionists, or loyalists, who want Northern Ireland to stay part of the
United Kingdom.
The loyalist paramilitaries including the Ulster Volunteer Force, Ulster
Defence Association and Red Hand Commando said they were concerned about
the disruption to trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland due
to the Brexit deal.
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"The loyalist groupings are herewith withdrawing their support for the
Belfast Agreement," they said in a March 3 letter to Johnson from
Loyalist Communities Council chairman David Campbell.
Reuters has seen a copy of the letter. A similar letter has been sent to
the Irish leader and copies were sent to the European Commission Vice
President Maros Sefcovic.
The paramilitary groups said they were determined that unionist
opposition to the Northern Irish Protocol was peaceful but added a
warning.
"Please do not underestimate the strength of feeling on this issue right
across the unionist family," the letter said.
"If you or the EU is not prepared to honour the entirety of the
agreement then you will be responsible for the permanent destruction of
the agreement," it said.
They said they would not return to the deal until their rights were
restored and the Northern Irish Protocol - part of the 2020 Brexit
Treaty - was amended to ensure unfettered trade between Britain and
Northern Ireland.
But, they said, their core disagreement was more fundamental: that
Britain, Ireland and the European Union had in the Northern Irish
Protocol breached their commitments to the 1998 peace deal and the two
communities.
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![](../images/030421PIX/news_a53.jpg)
People walk through the grounds of the Stormont Parliament buildings
in Belfast, Northern Ireland. December 30, 2020. Picture taken
December 30, 2020. REUTERS/Phil Noble
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2021/Mar/04/images/ads/current/Library_lda_EDUCATION_2020.png)
Johnson's office did not immediately comment on the letter but
referred Reuters to an earlier statement by his Brexit pointman,
David Frost, who did not address the letter.
PEACE IN NORTHERN IRELAND
Preserving the delicate peace in Northern Ireland without allowing
the United Kingdom a back door into the EU’s markets through the
310-mile (500 km) UK-Irish land border was one of the most difficult
issues of the Brexit divorce talks.
The loyalist groups abandoned the armed struggle in 1998 and
residual violence since the accord has largely been carried out by
dissident nationalist groups who opposed the peace deal.
Since Brexit proper on Jan. 1, 2021, Northern Ireland has had
problems importing a range of goods from Britain - which unionists,
or loyalists, say divides up the United Kingdom and so is
unacceptable.
The European Union promised legal action on Wednesday after the
British government unilaterally extended a grace period for checks
on food imports to Northern Ireland, a move Brussels said violated
the terms of Britain's divorce deal.
Ireland said Britain was behaving inappropriately.
"For the second time in the course of a few months, the British
government has threatened to breach international law," Deputy Prime
Minister Leo Varadkar told Virgin Media television, referring to a
similar unilateral move last year that London eventually dropped.
"This is not the appropriate behaviour of a respectable country,
quite frankly."
Joe Biden, while campaigning in the presidential election last year,
bluntly warned Britain that it must honour the 1998 peace agreement
as it withdrew from the European Union or there would be no separate
U.S. trade deal.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, editing by Estelle Shirbon and
Giles Elgood)
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