Commission has over 1000 submissions
by Laura Friel
A last-minute rush is believed to have brought the number of
submissions to the British government's Commission on Policing to
over a thousand, just a week after the Commission had complained
that it had received less than 300 submissions.
One of the last-minute submission was one compiled by
ex-internees. It was delivered by Liam Shannon, one of the
`hooded' men, just hours before the Commission's 15 September
deadline.
In a six page document, ex-internees detail their collective
experience of ``torture and ill treatment'' at the hands of the
RUC. The submission states, ``Our experiences are not isolated or
confined to one period of the conflict in our country, but
reflect the experience of thousands of Irish men and women who
have passed through RUC barracks and interogation centres over
the past thirty years.''
The document concludes, ``The brutality and cruelty of the Human
Rights violations perpetrated on us are indicative of the ethos,
culture and personnel of the RUC.''
The submission details the types of physical and psychological
torture endured by detainees which have been documented by Human
Rights groups such as Amnesty International as well as admissions
by the British government themselves. It makes particular
reference to the periods in which the now RUC Chief Ronnie
Flannagan had specific duties in one of the most notorious
interrogation centres in the North. According to the submission
Flanagan was a sergeant at Castlereagh in 1971-73, a period when
``the European Commission found the British government guilty of
torture and the European Court subsequently found the British
government guilty of inhumane and degrading treatment.''
During the period covered by the Bennett report, Flanagan
returned to Castlereagh as Duty Inspector, a role with
responsibility to supervise and monitor interrogations. The
submission concludes, ``Ronnie Flanagan either failed in his duty
to supervise interrogations which led to the torture of detainees
or condoned and actively allowed the use of torture.''
A submission by the Centre for Human Rights called for the the
RUC to be disbanded. Highlighting concerns of collusion between
the RUC and loyalist paramilitaries, Anne Monaghan called for the
establishment of a ``new non-partisan police force''.
``The centre is concerned that the British government will not go
far enough in their attempt to bring about the kind of police
service that is required. It is obvious that the RUC do not have,
will not have, and cannot regain the confidence of the
nationalist community,'' she said.
Late submissions to the Commission will be accepted but
contributors are advised that submissions past the deadline
cannot be expected to carry the same weight.
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