A quick compilation of the key points of this section. Discuss. Previously: IMC on Dissident Republicans
Quote:
[The report does not attribute the] “murder on 7 November of Martin Conlon. Although the victim was suspected of being a member of RIRA we are not at present able to say who was responsible for his death. We will provide in a future report any more specific information that becomes available to us.”
4.5 The one murder definitely attributable to paramilitaries in the three months under review was of a leading member of the UDA by, we believe, members of the same organisation. Subject to the qualifications noted in the above table, we are aware of no paramilitary murders which were committed on behalf of republican groups or with the sanction of their leadership since August 2003. The welcome reduction in the 3 months under review from the very high level in the preceding six months reflects the end of the feud between the UVF and LVF, which had led to 4 of the 5 deaths, all of them in July and August 2005. The rate of paramilitary murder in these 3 months is however comparable to that over most of the period since the analysis started in January 2003.
From Notes regarding Number of paramilitary murders over the period from 1 March 2003 until 30 November 2005 (see report for table)
(PIRA, Mar-Aug 05) ** The case is still under investigation and nothing we say must prejudice possible legal proceedings. A member or former member of PIRA may have been involved in the killing of Joseph Rafferty in Dublin in April 2005. We have no reason to believe that the murder was carried out on behalf of PIRA. However we believe that members of both Sinn Féin and PIRA were aware in advance of the threat and did not take sufficient action to prevent it.
(PIRA, Sep 04-Mar 05) * As in our Fifth Report, the categorisation of the murder of Robert McCartney on 30 January 2005 is not yet definitive, and we do not
therefore include a figure for it in this table. But we remain of the view we expressed in that Report – that members of PIRA were involved in the murder though we do not believe that central PIRA leadership sanctioned it in advance.
(Not attributable, Mar 04-Aug 04) Information suggests this death may have been linked to a republican paramilitary group but the precise motivation and attribution remain unclear.
(Not attributable, Mar 03-Aug 03) One of these was abducted and murdered by a republican group but we are unable to say which group. One was a member of PIRA killed in the struggle when attempting to undertake a paramilitary attack.
(Totals) As we indicated in our Fifth Report published in May 2005, we are not in a position to comment on the killing of Stephen Montgomery. We said in our Sixth Report on the UVF/LVF feud published in September 2005, that we recognise that people may have expected us to refer here to the disappearance of Lisa Dorrian on 28 February 2005 and her murder, and to the murder of Thomas Devlin on 10 August 2005. It remains the case that we have no reason to believe that either murder was carried out on behalf of a paramilitary group.
Shootings and Assaults
4.7 Loyalist paramilitaries have inflicted nearly all the reported casualties: all 22 of those of shooting and all but one of the 9 of assaults. The one reported assault that we are able to attribute to a republican group was by dissidents. The rate of shooting victims in the 3 months under review was much the same as in the preceding year while that for assault victims was very considerably lower.
Conclusions
4.10 As we say above, we think it would be better to base our usual analysis of the percentage changes in the incidence of violence on a full 6 months, and will include it in our report in April 2006 for the period 1 September 2005 to 28 February 2006.
Nevertheless we note that in the 3 months under review here, 1 September – 30 November 2005:
. the victim of the one murder which we can attribute to a paramilitary group was a leading member of the UDA killed, we believe, by members of the same organisation;
. all the 22 reported shooting victims and all but 1 of the 9 reported assault victims were the result of loyalist attacks; the one reported republican assault was by a dissident group and none of those reported is attributable to PIRA;
. the overall rate of shootings was broadly unchanged compared with the previous year, while that of assaults was very considerably lower.
Next: IMC on Leadership: Who’s in charge around here?
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