Angry exchanges highlight deep divisions on future role of force
From IRISH TIMES December 3rd, 1998
By SUZANNE BREEN
There were heated exchanges between republicans and unionists in Omagh,
Co Tyrone, yesterday at a public hearing of the Independent Commission on
Policing. At a meeting in the town library attended by around 250 people,
nationalist speakers were constantly heckled when they demanded the disbandment
of the RUC. The commission chairman, Mr Chris Patten, said the courage of
the people of Omagh after the "Real IRA" bomb had kept alive hopes for reconciliation
in the North. However, deep political divisions surfaced during the meeting.
There was loud laughter when Sinn Féin Assemblyman Mr Barry McElduff welcomed
the commission in Irish. As a schoolboy he had been arrested and insulted
by the RUC, he said. "At least they didn't shoot you in the back of the head," a heckler shouted. Mr McElduff's claim that the RUC was "a paramilitary force . . . 100 per cent unionist," was greeted with shouts of "rubbish, rubbish," and "we're not here to listen to this". His allegation that the
RUC had relentlessly harassed nationalists and "lit fires like the Ku Klux Klan" around a local family's home was met with mock-sympathy shouts. Calling
for the disbandment of the RUC, he said: "We don't want anything of the Crown here." "You take their money," one man replied. A man who said he
had recently returned from university in England said Sinn Féin was never
shy about taking legal action and if Mr McElduff had really been harassed
"I'm sure you would have some sort of pay cheque to wave in our faces".
He questioned his own decision to return to the North with the possibility
of the RUC's disbandment while "serial killers" were being released from
jail. He feared Sinn Féin would unduly influence the Patten Commission as
"fascist organisations manipulated good people" in the lead-up to the second
World War. Another speaker said he couldn't understand complaints about
the RUC's name and insignia. Nationalists, he said, had no problem working
for the Royal Mail with its Crown emblem. A community worker said local
republicans had staged a picket when the RUC addressed a meeting of the
charity, Age Concern, on home safety. Yet police had just fitted a lock
at the home of one protester's mother. A republican said the RUC regularly
harassed local youths and showed "nothing but contempt" for the nationalist
community. "Why wouldn't they?", a unionist shouted. SDLP representative
Mr Joe Byrne said while it was important for unionists and nationalists
to hear one another's views, constantly referring to the past was unhelpful
"for we are just hurting each other even more". He praised the RUC's behaviour
after the Omagh bomb as "exceptional" and appealed for calm during the policing
debate. A representative of the gay group, Foyle Friend, said many gays
were reluctant to contact the RUC when they were beaten up. He called on
the RUC or any new police service to ensure its officers treated people
of a different sexual orientation fairly. A woman speaker said many lesbians
would like to join the police but were concerned about whether they would
be welcome. |
