Director's Report September 1999

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September 1999

The report of the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland, chaired by Chris Patten, was published on 9th September 1999. It represents a serious attempt to grapple with the deep problems concerning policing in Northern Ireland and contains many excellent ideas and recommendations. We particularly welcome its recognition that policing is about human rights, and its insistence that human rights should be at the core of a new Northern Ireland police service. The Commission has said that its proposals must be taken as a package, and that no-one should be allowed to cherry pick among its recommendations. We accept the wisdom of that approach, but we hope that the report will be seen as a floor from which to build, rather than a ceiling to cap reform. For example, the report contains some good proposals to ensure retrospective accountability for what are currently cloaked as operational decisions, but it is weaker when it comes to placing an obligation on the Chief Constable to consult with other interested parties when developing policing policy. We support the Commission's call for the closure of the Holding Centres, but are disappointed that they did not recommend the repeal of the emergency laws which gave rise to those centres and which have led to many allegations of RUC abuse. We are surprised by the omission of any mention in the report of the on-going problem of intimidation of defence lawyers by certain RUC officers, and by the report's failure to propose any mechanism for ensuring that human rights abusers are squeezed out of the new police service. We also are sorry that the Commission, while recognising that plastic bullets are lethal weapons, did not call for their immediate withdrawal. These are all points that we will be raising in our response to the consultation exercise announced by the Secretary of State. The Good Friday Agreement says that the consultation is to be about implementation of the recommendations. We hope that the exceptionally negative response of some unionists to the report when the ink was scarcely dry will not be allowed by the government to distort the basis of the consultation to become a question of whether the report will be implemented, rather than how it should be done.

On 24th September the House Committee on International Relations' Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights held another hearing on Northern Ireland. Prior to the hearing, Chris Patten and Maurice Hayes addressed them concerning their report on policing, and answered a number of questions posed by Chairman Christopher Smith and other members of the Sub-Committee. Then the Sub-Committee heard evidence form Michael Finucane concerning the latest developments in the case of his father Patrick Finucane's murder. Michael Posner of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights then testified about intimidation of defence lawyers, the murder of Rosemary Nelson - who herself testified before the same committee almost exactly a year ago - and the Lawyers Committee's views on policing following their mission to no earlier this year. Maggie Beirne from the Committee on the Administration of Justice then gave an overview of human rights groups' reaction to the Patten report, with particular emphasis on emergency laws. Julia Hall of Human Rights Watch testified on vetting procedures, and I gave evidence concerning plastic bullets. This was a very timely and relevant meeting.

I am delighted to report that we have received a further donation of £5,000 from the Polden-Puckham Charitable Foundation, who are supporting our work for a third consecutive year. We are also extremely grateful to the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and to another donor who prefers to remain anonymous for substantial donations towards the cost of moving office and, in the case of the latter donor, to enable us to employ a full-time administrative assistant.

On 13th September we met Colin Port, the Deputy Chief Constable of Norfolk, who is in charge of the investigation into the murder of Rosemary Nelson. We had a constructive discussion, and he reiterated his determination to bring the perpetrators to justice. We will continue to monitor the police investigation very closely.

On 30th September the Director of Public Prosecutions issued a decision that no police officer would be prosecuted in relation to the murder of Robert Hamill, who was kicked to death by loyalists while RUC officers allegedly looked on and failed to intervene. We have written to the DPP asking a number of questions about this decision.

We are still waiting for a response from the British government to the report we delivered to them last February concerning this and other murders carried out in circumstances strongly suggesting collusion between army intelligence, the RUC and loyalists. That response is now long overdue.

We have been closely following the case of Ed Moloney, the journalist who has been ordered by the Northern Ireland courts to give up his notes of his interview with William Stobie, who has been charged with the murder of Patrick Finucane. William Stobie has told the court that he was a quartermaster for the UFF and supplied the guns that killed Patrick Finucane, but that he was also an RUC Special Branch agent at the time. He says that he told Special Branch all he knew but they did not prevent the murder from taking place, not arrest the perpetrators afterwards. Ed Moloney published a lengthy account of his 1990 interview with William Stobie after he was arrested this year and was promptly visited by John Stevens' investigation team, wanting to see his notes. He declined on the grounds of journalists' confidentiality. He was then taken to court under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and ordered to disclose his notes. He has been fighting the decision through the courts, and is waiting to hear his fate. He faces a fine and a potential prison sentence if he refuses to comply with the order. He says that if he does so, he will be finished as a journalist and his life will be in danger. The irony of the situation is that it would appear that the RUC have known all about William Stobie's alleged role in the murder for the past nine years. There seems no possible benefit in pursuing Ed Moloney, who is behaving as would be expected of any journalist of integrity.

The Bloody Sunday Tribunal is sitting this week to determine a number of preliminary matters before the hearings begin on 27th March 2000. They have been considering such issues as public interest immunity (the withholding of documents on security grounds), whether journalists should be forced to reveal information given to them in confidence, an application for anonymity by those soldiers who did not fire shots on Bloody Sunday, and the venue for the hearings. A recently delivered expert report on the forensic evidence available has vindicated the victims' and their relatives' claims that they were not handling guns or petrol/nail bombs.

This week saw the opening of the Bloody Sunday Centre in Shipquay Street, Derry, two minutes' walk from the Guildhall, where the Inquiry sits. This splendid building has been generously loaned to the Bloody Sunday Trust by Derry businessman Garvan O'Doherty, and has been fitted out using donations in cash and kind from businesses and individuals throughout the city and from elsewhere. It provides a haven for the Bloody Sunday relatives and victims for the duration of the Inquiry and a focal point for anyone who is interested in finding out what is happening at the Inquiry.

Considerable time has been spent in the past few weeks updating our guide to the human rights machinery of the UN, Human Wrongs, Human Rights. The new edition will be published jointly with the Northern Ireland Commission for Human Rights. We are both delighted that the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, has contributed a foreword to the guide. Copies will be available very soon. You can make sure that you are notified once it is available by registering your e-mail address with the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission at their website (http://www.nihrc.org). We will also be advertising it on our website as soon as copies are available.

This month saw the end of a year's internship by Meghan Pendleton and Miriam Andrews from the Institute of Commonwealth Studies. We are grateful to them both for their help during the year and we wish them well in their future careers.

Jane Winter,
Director,
30th September 1999

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