Who
cares about the guardians of our rights? Starving the watchdogs of cash
'is a proven way of keeping them quiet'
From IRISH NEWS October 20th, 1999
By BRIAN FEENEY
The RUC always does. Any idea how many plastic bullets they've fired? Just
under 125,000 until autumn 1998. The NIO has paid out hundreds of thousands
of pounds in compensation to the victims and their relatives. The NIHRC
will inevitably find itself pursuing the RUC and its successor the NIPS
for breaches of human rights. Brice Dickson told his audience on Saturday
that his annual budget of three-quarters of a million would keep the RUC
going for 10 hours.
Doesn't seem fair does it? You have to ask were the civil servants who allocated
that amount - and it was civil servants, not politicians - trying to send
Brice Dickson a message? Compare his funding to the Equality Commission
which last week formally took over from the FEC, EOC, racial and disability
commissions. They're getting £2 million to cover removal expenses. Shurely
shome mishtake? No, the truth is it reflects the priority the British administration
here places on human rights. It's a potential embarrassment.
Too many assisted court cases, too many exposes, and the north of Ireland
will be revealed before the world as the official serial abuser of human
rights which we all know it has been ever since its inception. The best
way to avoid that is to deprive the agency for detecting abuse of the funds
to do its job.
It's always worked in the past. The NIO can always rely on the fact that
ministers in the British administration here couldn't care less. Which one's
in charge of human rights? Which one has ever made a speech on human rights?
Secondly they can depend on the fact that local politicians only pay lip
service to the whole concept.
Name any party's spokesperson on human rights. |
