20 November 2003 Edition

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SF the best guarantee of policing progress

Gerry Kelly and Michelle Gildernew

Gerry Kelly and Michelle Gildernew

"Sinn Féin wants to see effective, civic policing. We want to get policing right. Sinn Féin has been central to discussions relating to the future of policing in Ireland," North Belfast candidate Gerry Kelly told a press conference this week.

"Sinn Féin put policing on the agenda of the negotiations in 1997 and we insisted that the issue be directly addressed in the Good Friday Agreement. Sinn Féin continues to pursue the agenda of radical change. We have made it a central plank of successive negotiations. The approach of our negotiating team has delivered substantial improvements on policing," he said.

"Sinn Féin has continued to engage with the British Government to get policing right and to ensure that policing is democratically accountable and representative. Since the Mandelson Act, Sinn Féin has successfully brought about two new Police Acts, a Criminal Justice Act and agreement in principle on the transfer of powers on policing and justice," said Kelly.

"In negotiations with the British Government, this year, Sinn Féin has secured further significant improvements including additional legislative amendments that require the British Secretary of State to consult with the Ombudsman, the Human Rights Commission and the Equality Commission on key areas of policing objectives.

"In addition to legislative amendments Sinn Féin secured movement on key implementation and operational issues which include the use of plastic bullets, demilitarisation, Special Branch and the transfer of power.

"While the SDLP and Policing Broads have accepted that plastic bullets will remain in use until at least the end of 2005, Sinn Féin continues to campaign to see plastic bullets banned with immediate effect. "We intend to hold the British government to their commitment to remove these lethal weapons from service by the end of 2003.

"The corrosive position of the Special Branch at the core of the current policing arrangements has to end. There can be no part in a new beginning to policing for the 'force within a force' which has, as a matter of policy, been involved in the targeting and murder of citizens," said Kelly.

Answering questions about the SDLP and policing, Kelly outlined some of the inconsistencies of the SDLP's position. "This week, the SDLP are saying they will remove Special Branch," said Kelly. "Last week and the week before the SDLP were claiming that was already done.

"The SDLP claim that through their participation in policing boards the PSNI can be made accountable but this is just not the case. Take, for example, the inquest into the killing of Roseanne Mallon. The PSNI have repeatedly refused to hand over documented evidence relating to the issue of possible Crown force collusion in the killing. Has the SDLP, through the policing boards, been able to compel the Chief Constable into complying with the Coroner's Court? They have not. The coroner, in this case and in nine other recent cases, has been compelled to take the matter to the High Court.

"Sinn Féin believes that the SDLP have got it wrong. We believe the SDLP's decision to break the nationalist consensus and accept positions on policing boards was premature and damaging to the project of securing necessary change," said Kelly.

"On the matter of policing, the SDLP has been dogged by a lack of vision and a readiness to concede. Before the 1998 Agreement Séamus Mallon argued that nothing could be done about the RUC.

"In the run up to Weston Park, the SDLP argued that there was no way the British government could be pushed into bringing in more progressive policing legislation. Following Weston Park, 14 different points of legislation were brought in. Undeterred by the SDLP's failure to negotiate, Sinn Féin has continued to secure real changes on policing and justice issues," said Kelly.

"Sinn Féin has delivered real progress. We now want to finish the job of creating the new beginning to policing promised in the Good Friday Agreement. Sinn Féin is the best guarantee of that."


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