The moves, confirmed by the British and Irish governments, underscored commitment across the sectarian divide to ending violence but did not remove a threat from hardline splinter groups operating on both sides. "The struggle has ended," said the Ulster Defence Association, which has also begun to fully decommission arms. "Peace and democracy have been secured and the need for armed resistance has gone. Consequently we are putting our arsenal of weaponry permanently beyond use."
An Ulster Volunteer Force statement was read to reporters in Belfast by a man representing the UVF and the Red Hand Commando and wearing an ordinary suit, a change from when paramilitary spokesmen addressed the media in masks, toting guns.
"The leadership of the Ulster Volunteer Force and Red Hand Commando today confirms it has completed the process of rendering ordnance totally and irreversibly beyond use," the UVF and the RHC statement said.
The UVF killed more than 540 people during 30 years of conflict with pro-Irish nationalists, making it the most lethal of the province's loyalist groups.
Relative Peace
Northern Ireland has enjoyed relative peace since a 1998 deal ended the predominantly Catholic Irish Republican Army's military campaign to end British control of the province and unite the island of Ireland.
"In recent years loyalist organisations have been making effective progress towards conflict transformation, and today is an important landmark in this process," said Ireland's Foreign Minister Michael Martin.
Mainly Protestant military organisations that want to keep Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom have been under pressure for years to start getting rid of arms following the IRA's decision to dispose of its weapons in 2005.
"The leadership of the UVF and RHC have delivered on what they said they would do," said Shaun Woodward, Britain's Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, confirming the UVF and RHC had completed decommissioning in cooperation with the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning.
More than 3,600 people were killed in violence between the late 1960s and the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement that paved the way for power sharing.
Efforts to consolidate peace were challenged in March when Republican splinter groups the Real IRA and the Continuity IRA killed two British soldiers and a policeman.
But strong condemnation of the attacks from all sides of the political spectrum and on both sides of the border ended up uniting much of the province behind the peace process.
The UVF said March's dissident attacks had delayed its disarmament but a politician close to the group said further Republican assaults would not spark any retaliation as British and Irish authorities could now be trusted to deal with them.
"People want to understand we do live in a democratic society, that there will be due process, that the two governments will not sit back and allow things to happen that happened in the past," said Billy Hutchinson of the Progressive Unionist Party, the UVF's ally in Northern Ireland's regional assembly.
In a more recent act of sectarian violence, Catholic community worker and father-of-four Kevin McDaid was beaten to death last month in Coleraine, about 55 miles (90 km) from Belfast. His wife, a Protestant, was badly beaten trying to stop the attack.
"(The loyalist commitment to peace) is very genuine amongst those who are at leadership level," said Pete Shirlow of the Queen's University Belfast School of Law.
"Where you have problems is with certain rumps, certain groups left behind in rural areas who are not supportive of the peace process," Shirlow said.
Northern Ireland has also seen a lot of the resentment earlier inspired by the Protestant-Catholic division turning against more recently arrived ethnic minorities and foreign workers, a survey this week showed.
