The Northern Ireland Office has again insisted that there are no indications that a missing intelligence dossier has fallen into loyalist paramilitary hands, despite a report yesterday that the UDA has possession of the document.
Belfast's Sunday Life yesterday reported that the dossier, which has gone missing from Castlereagh security complex, had been obtained by the UDA.
The newspaper, quoting a north Belfast UDA source, said that the loyalist paramilitary group had at least one copy of the dossier, which is said to contain details about 400 suspected loyalist and republican paramilitaries.
"It is in the hands of the organisation, but obviously very few people have seen it and very few will be allowed access to it," the source told the Sunday Life. He said the dossier could be used by the UDA to target leading republicans if there was further trouble over Orange Order marches in north Belfast.
One British soldier, understood to be a member of the Royal Irish Regiment (RIR), was arrested on July 11th after the dossier went missing. He was later released without charge.
Moreover, 28 members of the RIR were removed from security duties at Castlereagh and transferred to Palace Barracks in Holywood, Co Down, following from the investigation into the missing document. Security and other sources have suggested the dossier is "lost" rather than stolen.
This latest report, however, again raises concerns that the dossier may have fallen into loyalist paramilitary hands.
Sinn Féin MLA Mr Gerry Kelly repeated that this issue has the potential to blow up into another major collusion scandal.
"It is no longer tenable that the Secretary of State, Paul Murphy, will not comment on this matter," he said yesterday.
The PSNI said yesterday it would be inappropriate to comment on this latest report as its investigation was continuing.
A spokesman for the North's Security Minister, Mr Ian Pearson, repeated yesterday what he said on Friday - that he had "confirmed with senior officers in PSNI that there are no indications that material has fallen into the hands of paramilitaries".
