Policing and Human Rights

The decision by the SDLP, the Irish government and the hierarchy of the Catholic Church to endorse the British government's policing arrangements has raised more doubts about the possibility of ever securing the type of substantive change envisaged and required for protecting human rights.

How are people concerned with the promotion of human rights now going to seek an end to the use of plastic bullets, lethal weapons which were used regularly this summer by the RUC? Are those people on the police boards going to justify the use of plastic bullets and ongoing brutality as was recently witnessed in Ardoyne and elsewhere? The SDLP and the Irish government's position in favour of human rights and against the use of plastic bullets is made all the more difficult now that they have endorsed the new 'Police Boards'.

The assertion that new recruits will not be trained in the use of plastic bullets is nothing new. It is and always has been operational practice. This existing practice is now being presented as something new and has been cynically used as part of the overall cosmetic package to attract support. Unfortunately some have not seen beyond the cosmetics.

Will members of the Police Board be able to curb or end the continued activity of RUC Special Branch who are actively recruiting informants and coercing ordinary people who happen to commit minor offenses into working for them? Quite legitimately people we represent who have been affected by RUC violence, including collusion with loyalist death squads, will ask where is the human rights dividend as promised.

One only has to read the recent Walker Report that talked of the 'suppression of vital evidence' by the RUC and of its murky activities namely those of Special Branch and its agents.

RUC Detective Jonty Brown, who was forced to drop charges against one of the alleged killers of Pat Finucane, recently told UTV Insight that he feared the Special Branch far more than the RIRA and the IRA and that his life was at risk from those within the RUC.

There were commitments made publicly by the SDLP to ensure that independent inquiries into past human rights abuses by the RUC would be supported and sought yet these have not been met. If anything these cases and all other outstanding abuses have not been progressed, and while these matters are still outstanding the very abusers remain within the existing RUC structures. These same individuals are likely to play vital and senior roles in the new police structure.

It is entirely in the interests of the British government's securocrats and those responsible for human rights violations during the past 30 years, including and particularly those within Special Branch, to prevent disclosure, truth and justice concerning these very serious violations. The truth needs to be known about the State's forces running agents, arming, controlling and directing loyalist death squads. The prevention of such disclosure through mechanisms, designed to protect the guilty, were condemned recently in the European Court - namely so-called RUC investigations, the role and relationship of the DPP with the RUC, the inquest system and civil courts.

Whilst we as an organisation of relatives assisted by the international community and human rights groups have consistently pursued disclosure, truth and justice, the decision to join the new Police Board has, it could be argued, effectively assisted those wanting to pull a veil over the sinister activities of the state. We believe that this has not been their intention but rather this is the implication of that decision.

Promises of 'inquiries' will, like the Policing Bill, and the Patten report itself, be frittered away by the British government. At the end of the day both Ronnie Flanagan and John Reid retain control of any decisions taken by the proposed Police Boards. Do those who endorse the current policing proposals believe that after 30 years of avoiding truth and justice that suddenly the British government will now embrace these concepts in regard to their past actions without firm agreed and concrete commitments?

Recent events in Ardoyne and elsewhere showed the flagrant disregard for human rights, particularly of children, and the double standards that exist regarding the RUC being absolutely partial.

All this would substantiate the widely held view within the nationalist and republican community that the RUC are incapable of any change and are indeed, along with fellow unionists, fighting a rearguard offensive against any change, especially the remote possibility of having its powers reduced.

We believe, notwithstanding the issues that still remain unresolved that it is both premature and out of touch with grassroots opinion to endorse the Police Boards while there is no movement on inquiries, plastic bullets remain, and while there are yet no measures to retrospectively address past abuses and remove those responsible.

Under the implementation plan the Police Boards can do nothing about these and many other issues of public concern. Ultimately Tony Blair, John Reid and Ronnie Flanagan still retain maximum control.