Republican News · Thursday 12 December 2002

Orde fails northern Catholics

BY LAURA FRIEL

Unthinkable to the media and to Hugh Orde it might be, but the figures show the failure of the PSNI to meet the criteria of a new beginning to policing

Catholics in the North are 'failing' the PSNI, Chief Constable Hugh Orde told the media last week. The comment accompanied the revelation that even within the civilian clerical backup, less than 10% of Catholics had been recruited to assist the PSNI.

d Orde went further. The 50-50-recruitment rule, together with "the dismal response from Catholics to a recruitment drive", was undermining the PSNI's ability to thwart a possible disidentent Christmas bombing campaign and to combat loyalist violence.

The 'failure' of Catholics to seek employment as clerical assistants to the PSNI was undermining the Chief Constable's ability to free deskbound PSNI officers.

It's a worrying vision. Catholic recruitment is failing in as much as it is not releasing 'experienced' or more accurately 'former RUC' officers onto the streets. No one questions why such a proposition is so unattractive to nationalists.

There also appears to have been no intended irony in the choice of film footage to accompany the statement. Lines of riot clad and armed PSNI officers flooding into Stormont to raid Sinn Fein's offices provided the backdrop to a voiceover.

The notion that the PSNI, like the RUC before them, are failing the northern Catholic community, appears to be so unthinkable that film footage of PSNI officers acting like anti-Agreement stormtroopers invading political institutions and bringing down power sharing arrangements appears neutral material to be recycled.

Unthinkable to the media and the head of the PSNI it might be, but as the figures show, the failure of the PSNI to meet the criteria of a new beginning to policing is blatantly clear to the northern nationalist community.

As Sinn Féin's Gerry Kelly pointed out, the fact that only 26 Catholics were recruited by the PSNI for auxiliary administrative purposes, "is a stark reminder for the British government that nationalists will not participate in flawed policing arrangements".

In fact, it is unclear what percentage of these were actually from the Six Counties, as the PSNI have also been recruiting English Catholics and Catholics from the 26 Counties.

"Nationalists are demanding the sort of accountable policing service promised in the Good Friday Agreement," said Kelly. "The British government has so far failed to deliver this. These figures place an even greater onus on the British government to bring forward legislation which brings its Policing Act into line with Patten."

Orde's comments followed a lengthy statement by the British Secretary of State Paul Murphy in which he suggested that the only nationalists who have not yet embraced the PSNI are those who have "to make the final transition from violence to democracy".

Veteran civil rights campaigner Oliver Kearney, whose son Ciaran is one of a number of people currently being held in custody in connection with an alleged republican 'spy ring', described the British minister's comments as "unjust and offensive".

"The nationalist community at large shares a deep conviction that the power sharing assembly was recently subjected to a political coup d'etat planned and orchestrated at the highest level of the PSNI Special Branch and British Intelligence in Ireland," said Kearney.

Describing the British Secretary of State's analysis of nationalist perception of the PSNI as "deeply and fundamentally flawed", Kearney said nationalists believed the Special Branch hierarchy of the PSNI was promoting a particular political agenda in which innocent men can be incarcerated.

"There is a crisis of confidence amongst nationalists as to whether Mr Murphy has the will or capacity to eradicate this poisonous influence within the policing and criminal justice system," said Kearney.

Meanwhile, statistics released by the PSNI, following a challenge by the widow of a Catholic man shot dead 24 years ago, confirmed that two out of every three killings connected to the last 30 years of conflict remain unsolved.

A staggering 1,874 deaths out of a total of 2,839 killings, including the recent sectarian killings of Gerard Lawlor, Daniel McColgan and Gavin Brett, remained 'unsolved'.

Add to this the fact that the statistics released by the PSNI deliberately ignored that 99% of those killed by the RUC and British Army were not even investigated. To date, almost 400 people have been killed by British Crown forces, most in controversial circumstances.

"During the past 30 years, both the RUC and British Army killed numerous citizens," said Sinn Féin MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, Michelle Gildernew.

"No attempt was made to investigate these deaths. No attempt was made to provide justice and truth for the surviving families. This was proven last year in the European Court," she said.

Last year, the European Court of Human Rights criticised the British government's failure to investigate controversial killings and failure to hold inquests into deaths promptly.

The PSNI is currently facing domestic court action after it was revealed that victims of intimidation are being denied rehousing.

Under a scheme designed to make it easy for homeowners to escape intimidation, often involving life threatening sectarian assault, the Housing Executive may purchase the house but only after intimidation has been confirmed by the PSNI.

Last week, lawyers acting on behalf of an elderly Catholic woman, who has been driven out of her home by loyalists, sought a judicial review after the PSNI denied her application to be a part of the rehousing scheme.

PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde refused her application, despite the fact that the PSNI had initially confirmed to the Housing Executive that she had been rendered homeless as a result of the harassment she had suffered over a prolonged period.

The PSNI admitted it had received just over 500 applications to the scheme this year, of which 274 had been approved. The PSNI refused to reveal a breakdown of those figures, which would identify the number of successful Catholic or Protestant applications as opposed to Crown forces personnel.

A high proportion of applications come from interface areas like North Belfast, where loyalist attacks on Catholic homes are almost a nightly occurrence. But according to local Sinn Féin councillor Eoin Ó Brion, it has proven to be almost impossible to access the scheme.

Catholic homes have to be repeatedly attacked before the PSNI considers an application. If an applicant is refused there is an appeal procedure, but the fact that the PSNI is not obliged to provide reasons for refusal the decision is virtually impossible to challenge.

This week marks the first hundred days of office for the new PSNI Chief Constable, Hugh Orde. Controversy outside has been equally matched by controversy within the force.

The sudden retirement of a senior member of the Special Branch continued to fuel controversy. Bill Lowry, the senior Special Branch officer in Belfast, headed the 'invesigation' into the alleged 'IRA spy ring' with responsibility for the raid on Sinn Féin offices in Stormont.

But Lowry's curiously swift removal only followed a press briefing, which despite being authorised, was later described as a 'leak'. Lowry was identified as the source.

Reports of a serious dispute between Lowry and Orde accompanied the announcement of Lowry's retirement. It has now emerged that Lowry has lodged an official complaint with the Police Board.

The board's chairperson, Desmond Rea, confirmed that Lowry had issued a complaint and a source said that Lowry's action amounted to a case of 'constructive dismissal'. The PSNI Chief Constable has responded by denying any political pressure had been brought upon him that resulted in Lowry's resignation.

"I came under no pressure whatsoever to encourage anyone to leave the PSNI," said Orde, and Lowry's early retirement was "entirely a matter for him".

Commenting on the PSNI Chief Constable's first hundred days in office, Sinn Féin spokesperson on policing, Gerry Kelly, said Orde's vows to tackle loyalist paramilitaries attacking Catholics had so far proven to be "hollow words".

"Hugh Orde hasn't dealt a decisive blow to loyalist paramilitaries. Instead he has presided over very young children being arrested at school for 'rioting' and another child being approached to act as an informer," said Kelly.