Republican News · Thursday 21 February 2002

Cookstown outlaws plastic bullets

Cookstown Council passed at motion at its monthly meeting on 12 February calling on the new Policing Board to immediately ban the use of plastic bullets by members of the PSNI. The motion, proposed by Sinn Féin Councillor Oliver Gibson, was passed by 10 votes to 4 and supported by all Sinn Féin and SDLP cllrs. An attempted amendment by unionists to the effect that plastic bullets should be maintained until an alternative was found failed.

The Council is now mandated to write to the Police Board, the Chief Constable and British Secretary of State John Reid to advise them of the motion.

"Over the past thirty years plastic bullets have proved only two things - they are readily used at a whim and they kill," said Molloy. "Most of the victims of plastic bullets have been children and most of those killed had no involvement in any action against the RUC or British Army. Despite this, the RUC and British Army continues to use this lethal weapon as its main source of crowd control, even though no other police service in Britain or Ireland sees the need to have it.

"It is important at this stage to put down a marker for the new police board to make it clear that they are now responsible for the actions of the RUC/PSNI. They are also the owners of around 60,000 newly purchased plastic bullets. It remains to be seen whether they have the courage to ensure that these lethal weapons are banned, or indeed if they even have the authority to take any action whatsoever to ensure that their plastic bullets do not see the light of day. It's make your mind up time for the police board - it's time to ban plastic bullets!"