Sinn Féin protests joint Garda-RUC boxing team
Sinn Féin picketed the Department of Justice headquarters at St Stephen's Green in Dublin on Friday, 19 May, in protest at members of the Gardaí joining an RUC boxing team in Belfast that night. Councillor Larry O'Toole said:
``When nationalists in the North cannot join the RUC because of its appalling human rights record and its political role in enforcing the rule of the Orange state, it is inconceivable that Gardaí can join an RUC representative side.''
``Does anyone think the Garda authorities could get away with ignoring the human rights record of the Serbian Police and play sport with them?'' Councillor O'Toole asked, pointing out that the Gardaí were lending credibility to and endorsing the police force with ``the worst human rights record in Western Europe''.
O'Toole said the announcement that no RUC officer is to be prosecuted for issuing death threats against assassinated human rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson would have caused outrage in official circles in any other country. ``That decision alone should cause the Department of Justice and the Garda boxing authorities to think again.''
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