This article is more than 10 years old

This article is more than 10 years old

The ex-head of the Anglican church in Ireland and a former senior British civil servant today confirmed that the Ulster Defence Association had put all of its illegal weapons beyond use.

Lord Eames and Sir George Quigley verified that they had witnessed the destruction of UDA arms, in another boost to the political process in Northern Ireland.

Eames and Quigley, a former head of the Northern Ireland civil service, oversaw the decommissioning alongside John de Chastelain, the Canadian general in charge of the international body that deals with paramilitary disarmament.

After almost four decades of bloodshed, and having killed hundreds of victims during the Troubles, the UDA – the largest Ulster loyalist paramilitary organisation – said it had reached a stage where "violence is no longer a viable option and where weaponry is a thing of the past".

In a statement released at the Stormont Hotel, across the road from the Northern Ireland parliament, the UDA also addressed the victims of its armed campaign.

"To all those in the community who have lost loved ones, we understand and we share in your sense of loss, but we are determined and are willing to play our full part in ensuring that the tragedy of the last 40 years will never happen again."

At the press conference, organised by UDA political allies the Ulster Political Research Group, senior loyalists were asked whether the organisation's decision to disarm meant an end to associated criminality.

"You can't be a loyalist and a criminal," Frankie Gallagher, the UPRG's chairman, said.

He said anyone in loyalist communities was entitled to inform on those using the name of the UDA or any loyalist terror group to extort money or deal drugs.

Speaking about the role of Eames and Quigley, Gallagher confirmed that the pair had been with the UDA "every step of the way" on the road to disarmament and had seen guns and munitions being put beyond use.

In their statement, Eames and Quigley said: "We were very pleased to have the opportunity to be present at such a significant moment in the course of Northern Ireland's steady progress towards what can be a far better future for everyone."

They added that loyalists who had renounced violence and criminality and who wanted to help transform their communities needed to be supported.

De Chastelain confirmed the decommissioning act in his role as the head of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD). He said it was "a major act of decommissioning" in which arms, ammunition, explosives and explosive devices had been destroyed. The leadership of the UDA had told him the armaments "constitute the totality of those under their control".

The decommissioning took place 15 years after the UDA's first ceasefire, in 1994.

A breakaway faction of the UDA, in the south-east Antrim area, has yet to disarm. However, loyalist sources today told the Guardian that the rebel unit was also in discussions with De Chastelain and the IICD and was moving towards disarmament.

• This article was amended on Friday 8 January 2010. We previously referred to "the largest Ulster loyalist paramilitary organisation" as the UDP. This has been corrected.