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8 October 1998 Edition

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Police Commission must take off the blindfold

There is deep concern among nationalists that Chris Patten's Commission on Policing will fail to get to grips with the role of the RUC in creating and maintaining the conflict in the Six Counties. The Policing Commission's unwillingness to explore the history of human rights abuses carried out by the RUC can only hinder the establishment of the truth necessary to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.

In effect Patten's Policing Commission is blindfolding itself to the reality of the `policing' experience in the Six Counties over the past three decades and far beyond.

It is absurd to propose that ``future policing arrangements'' can be adequately explored and pursued without at first taking into account why such new arrangements are necessary and what is wrong with the present arrangements. The obvious danger is that one creates a future based not on the reality of experience but on myth and wishful thinking.

The establishment of truth and confronting past injustices are accepted and essential parts of a conflict resolution process. They are vital elements in building a peaceful and stable future.

The reality of the RUC as the armed wing of unionism; its record of human rights abuses; its involvement with loyalist death squads; its practice of shooting suspects on sight, of torture during interrogation, of scandals, cover-ups and whitewash must all be throughly examined as part of the remit of the Commission on Policing.

Without that sort of thorough examination the Commission can only stumble blindly into the future. If they don't look into where the current situation came from they can't possibly figure how to move forward. It's time to take the blindfold off.


An Phoblacht
44 Parnell Sq.
Dublin 1
Ireland