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| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| UDA set to confirm weapons dumped | UDA set to confirm weapons dumped |
| (about 6 hours later) | |
| The Ulster Defence Association (UDA) is expected to announce later it has put its weapons beyond use. | |
| The loyalist paramilitary group has five weeks to meet the government's 9 February deadline to complete the decommissioning of its weapons. | The loyalist paramilitary group has five weeks to meet the government's 9 February deadline to complete the decommissioning of its weapons. |
| Once this amnesty ends, any UDA weapons discovered by police would be forensically tested and evidence could be used in future court cases. | Once this amnesty ends, any UDA weapons discovered by police would be forensically tested and evidence could be used in future court cases. |
| It is understood the UDA leadership put its weapons beyond use in recent weeks. | It is understood the UDA leadership put its weapons beyond use in recent weeks. |
| The UDA and the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), a cover name it used for its paramilitary activities, are suspected of being behind 259 murders between 1969 and 2001. | |
| A second, and older loyalist group, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) completed decommissioning in June last year. | |
| Witnessed | Witnessed |
| Details of the UDA process are expected to be announced at a news conference on Wednesday morning and confirmed in a statement from General John de Chastelain, the head of the international decommissioning body which witnessed the act. | |
| General John de Chastelain is expected to confirm the move | General John de Chastelain is expected to confirm the move |
| The move comes more than 15 years after the UDA announced its ceasefire and 12 years after the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning was set up. | The move comes more than 15 years after the UDA announced its ceasefire and 12 years after the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning was set up. |
| A breakaway UDA faction in south east Antrim decommissioned a small quantity of weapons last summer and told General De Chastelain it would also complete the process before the February deadline. | A breakaway UDA faction in south east Antrim decommissioned a small quantity of weapons last summer and told General De Chastelain it would also complete the process before the February deadline. |
| The body which monitors paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland said in its last report the UDA remained effectively split into two distinct groups - the mainstream UDA and the south east Antrim group. | |
| The Independent Monitoring Commission said in November members of both factions remained involved in a range of criminal activity. | |