Gilman questions Clinton on policing
The chairman of the US Congressional Committee on International Relations, Ben Gilman, has this week asked US President Bill Clinton to clarify his position on the British Policing Bill.
In a letter to the President, Gilman wrote:
``Before any FBI or other US law enforcement training will be provided to the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) or its successor, we in the Congress would appreciate knowing what your assessment is of the British government's ultimate implementation of the many excellent proposed policing reforms recommended by the Patten Report of September 9, 1999, as mandated by the terms of the Good Friday Accord.
``The House of Commons in London has now completed work on the policing bill, and there are many of the key reforms that Patten proposed left out of the bill,'' the Congressman wrote. ``We have many vague promises about things being done in an implementation plan down the road. If the Good Friday Accord and the Patten Commission policing reforms which flow from that accord are to have any meaning, we must see real change on the ground and real reform of the police service in Norther Ireland, sooner rather than later.''
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