LOYALIST paramilitaries have drawn up a chilling ''Doomsday'' plan of
action against a British withdrawal from Northern Ireland, it was
claimed last night.
The plan, said to have been drawn up over several years by the Ulster
Defence Association, the largest loyalist paramilitary group, includes
details of religious trends in many parts of the province.
The Belfast-based Sunday Life newspaper published a series of maps
showing four options on what territory the UDA believes it could hold,
what would be given up and what might be fought for.
In essence the border would be redrawn, with Protestants consolidating
themselves in a smaller Ulster in the North-east of the present
province.
The plan allegedly suggests that two or probably three of Northern
Ireland's six counties would be lost, and considers options such as
taking Catholics living in the east of the province hostage as
''bargaining chips'' for the release of Protestants trapped in the
surrendered west.
Neither the Northern Ireland Office nor the security forces would make
any comment on the blueprint. One document, it was claimed, said the
objective would be to ''establish an ethnic Protestant Homeland'' with
adequate forces deployed along a defensive border and the
''consolidation of territory'' as am immediate objective.
The ''Doomsday'' scenario recognises there would be large numbers of
Catholics left within the Protestant homeland and offers three chilling
options on dealing with them -- expulsion, internment, or nullification.
A prominent member of the Rev. Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist
Party, Mr Sammy Wilson, last night described the alleged Doomsday plan
as ''a very valuable return to reality''.
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