Major Northern Ireland Militia Renounces Violence

The largest Protestant paramilitary group in Northern Ireland stood down yesterday but didn't commit to destroying its arms, the Guardian reports. The Ulster Defense Association, the third and last of the major militant groups in the region to renounce violence, announced its commitment to "a society where violence and weaponry are ghosts of the past," RTE reports.

The Catholic IRA and Protestant Ulster Volunteer Force have already laid down their arms, but only the IRA has turned over its arsenal to international officials overseeing the disarmament process, the LA Times reports. Protestants in Belfast want the UDA to retain its arms in case a younger IRA generation resumes bloodshed, said a UDA commander, calling the weapons "the people's guns." (More Northern Ireland stories.)