Report proposes ``cosmetic change'' to RUC
By Sean O'Tuama
A British House of Commons Northern Ireland Affairs Committee
report on the future of the RUC, published on Monday 27 July, has
been blasted by Sinn Fein's Assembly member, Bairbre de Brun, as
``woefully inadequate'' and ``deeply flawed''. De Brún that the
proposals in the report would lead only to ``cosmetic change'' in
the force.
The committee, which is made up of Unionist, SDLP, British Labour
and Tory MPs, stated that without radical change it would take
thirty years for the RUC to become representative of the people
in the north.
However the recommendations in the report proposed the most
minimal of change. It ruled out any change of name for the RUC
and warned that any reform would cause tensions within the force.
Two recommendations, which were not endorsed unanimously,
indicate the limit of real change envisaged by the group. One of
these is that no Union Jacks be flown from RUC barracks on the
12th of July and the other is that new recruits to the force will
be prohibited from being members of the Orange Order or the
Ancient Order of Hibernians, but existing members of the RUC only
have to register their allegiance to the loyalist orders.
Bairbre de Brun commented: ``The RUC is unacceptable to
nationalists. That is the reality. This report fails to address
in any substantive way any of the critical issues relating to
policing. The issue of policing is more than one simply of
imagery. It is not nationalist imagination which has conjured up
a force which is deeply hostile and sectarian, and whose members
have killed and brutalised with the protection of British law.''
She added that it was ``amazing'' that the authors of the report
failed to address the issue of RUC collusion with loyalist death
squads. Citing the thousands of RUC files which have ended up in
loyalist hands, the Stalker/Sampson enquiry, the Stevens report,
the UN report on RUC intimidation of solicitors and the plethora
of investigations by human rights groups condemning the RUC, she
asked: ``Do the authors not think that these are factors which
help form an attitude to this force?''
The report, which is not legally binding, will be submitted to
the Independent Policing Commission which is to be set up as a
result of the Good Friday document.
De Brun warned that if the Commission took the same approach as
the report then it will have failed in the critical task of
creating ``a new police service that can enjoy widespread support
from, and is seen as an integral part of, the community as a
whole'' as stated in the Good Friday document.
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