G21 Europe: Irish Eyes

Irish Eyes

THE RUC: THEY HAVEN'T GONE AWAY, YOU KNOW

by Dan VanDeMortel

G21 Guest Contributor

Morrison & Foerster, LLP

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Map of Ireland. SAN FRANCISCO - It's impossible to read the British or Irish press these days without coming across countless references to the"D" word. No, not Diana --- Decommissioning.

Despite all the signposts that have been passed on the road to peace this year in Northern Ireland (the Good Friday Agreement, the Agreement's approval via a national referendum, the release of political prisoners from the Maze prison, the election of members for a new Northern Ireland Assembly, and dialogue (finally, dialogue!) between Messrs. Adams, Trimble, Blair, and Ahern and their surrogates (decommissioning of paramilitary weapons is being held out as the Big Stick to swat away all that has been accomplished.

What's troubling to me is that no party or government can afford to burn its political capital by allowing this issue to derail the peace process or the formatting and implementation of the Assembly. Why? Because decommissioning is just a warm-up pitch compared to the true Nightmare Issue awaiting those concerned with Northern Ireland's future: reform of the Royal Ulster Constabulary. To paraphrase Gerry Adams, this problem hasn't gone away, you know.

Since the partition of Ireland, the RUC has been an overwhelmingly Protestant force and has enjoyed scant support among the Catholic population. This is especially true in working-class communities such as North and West Belfast, where countless persons, such as Kevin Barry Artt (one of the H-Block 3), have been harassed, arrested, and detained in special interrogation centers such as Castlereagh, which has been condemned by myriad international governments and human rights bodies.

Central to the RUC's problem of being an effective police force is that it is not able to maintain an entirely neutral position in separating Republicans from Loyalists and keeping the peace. As a security arm branch of the United Kingdom, the RUC, as with other police forces around the world, is concerned with upholding the Union and preserving the status quo.

Given the corrosive political acrimony and violence in Northern Ireland over the past 30 years, any police force would have encountered justifiable opposition from the nationalist community. The fact that, for historical and political reasons, over 90% of the force's members have been drawn from the Protestant and Unionist communities has added special ammunition to those who have demanded reform, if not a complete disbanding of the force.

There is a commission chaired by Chris Patten, the last governor of Hong Kong, who negotiated the handover of the former British colony to China. As a junior minister in Northern Ireland between 1983 and 1985, Patton stayed in Ireland long enough for a couple of cups of tea. He was also there long enough to incur the wrath of Unionists for his role in changing the name of the "Londonderry" city council to "Derry." In the swirl of these recriminations, bitter references were made to his Catholicism. Under the rubric of the Good Friday Agreement, this commision is charged with delving into this quagmire and somehow extracting a magic solution.

Patten's seven-member commission is comprised of an international array of resumes:

Sir John Smith (former Metropolitan Police deputy commissioner);

Kathleen O'Toole (Massachusetts Public Safety Secretary who has previously worked on projects with the RUC);

Peter Smith QC (legal practitioner and UUP supporter);

Dr. Maurice Hayes (a former Northern Ireland Ombudsman, and a voice of moderate Nationalism);

Professor Clifford Shearing (University of Toronto Director of the Centre of Criminology);

Dr. Gerald Lynch (President of John Jay College, New York, and the sole nominee of Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern to win a place on the commission); and

Lucy Woods (Chief Executive of British Telecom in Northern Ireland).

Somehow, by next summer, this less than Marxist body is going to have to introduce radical reform of the RUC, or else the peaceful aspirations codified in the Good Friday Agreement will eventually turn to dust, just as assuredly as the next murky batch of rain clouds will soon loom over the green hills of West Belfast.

From the craic of Belfast to the distant yells of the Irish community in San Francisco, this proposed radical reform takes the form of two solutions: reform vs. disbanding. This, unfortunately, propagates a false dichotomy that renders an unarguably serious issue down to the level of our country's (non)debate about the War on Drugs.

Essentially, whether you reform the RUC or disband it, you are inescapably required to come to the same end result: there is a fundamental need for a police entity operating under some name with some authority to function under conflicting societal and political attitudes/guidelines in an attempt to maintain the rule of law as impartially as possible. That's the crux: there is no "right" answer. International examples from South Africa, the Middle East, and even the recent successes in building an integrated police department in San Francisco can be studied and compared, but no structure can be imported wholesale into Northern Ireland, followed by its citizens being dutifully plugged into specific slots akin to building a Lego house.

To borrow a Northern Ireland phrase,"at the end of the day" these are the core points that the Patten Commission, in theory and prescription, and the Northern Ireland police force, in their departments and on the ground, will have to confront in the next millennium:

Composition: the new police force must reflect the demographic realities of Northern Ireland. Currently only 7.5% of officers are Catholic, and only 10.5% are female. This reflects and foments a Protestant/Unionist white male culture that is intolerant of and incapable of effectively dealing with vast numbers of their constituency. A dramatic turnaround in hiring practices, recruitment, and employment goals will have to be created. A 1996 study estimated that at the current Catholic recruitment pace, with no reform, the RUC would need at least 50 years to get its force up to passably representative levels. Northern Ireland doesn't have that long to wait.

An end to emergency law: a reformed or newly inaugurated police force will not be able to perform impartially or earn the trust of all its citizens unless the emergency law framework underpinning Northern Ireland governance is immediately removed. As long as legal provisions insure the police's rights to maintain special interrogation centers, fire plastic bullets, interrogate suspects for up to seven days without legal counsel, deny the right to silence, and arbitrarily arrest citizens under frequently vague suspicions of terrorism, the police will continue to adhere to these standards. There is arguably no more important component to improving the Northern Ireland police than this need for change. What is especially worrisome is that this crucial condition for improvement falls outside the remit of the Patten Commission and is subject to the fluctuating whims of the British government.

Accountability: any changes formulated by the Patten Commission must be implemented immediately and consistently by the police. However, the police in Northern Ireland, like any other police force, can not and should not be expected to keep its own house in order. The actions of the police will have to be held under close scrutiny by a police monitoring body or authority that has teeth and will be able to criticize and effect change as independently as possible from police meddling and the political concerns of the day. Continued international and human rights pressure in this regard will also be essential.

Signs and symbols: although this may sound cosmetic, the name Royal Ulster Constabulary is what needs to be disbanded. In a land of deep divisions that desperately requires large doses of salve to heal generational wounds, there is no room for an important legal body to be affixed with blatantly one-sided appellations such as "Royal" or "Ulster." Perhaps simply the "Northern Ireland Police Department" or "Northern Ireland Police Force" would do. Likewise, an independent police symbol, replacing the Union Jack, should be adopted to be used for all forms of public display. Now that the "emergency" is over in Northern Ireland, the police will also have to travel in more civilian-friendly police vehicles, rather than the grey, formidable mini-tanks which currently roam the streets. RUC stations, which resemble fortresses, will have to be dismantled and modified for a non-emergency-based society. If the Patten Commission resolutely accomplishes change and an improved police force truly does emerge from the RUC's tarnished legacy, there will also have to be a concomitant surge of altered public opinion about the force from both sides of the Northern Ireland religious and political divides. On the Protestant/Unionist side, the begrudging resentment at the "political correctness", "selling out" or "playing of the Green Card" by the new force will have to be set aside for the forward vision that even though the police may not be "our RUC" of the past, they are everyone's best hope for the proper rule of law for the future.
And on the Catholic/Nationalist side, the visceral distrust, animosity, and plain hatred of "the peelers" is going to have to be shelved, providing the new force displays a good faith effort to improve its relations with their community. If the hand of sincerity and assistance is genuinely and consistently extended, the Catholic population is going to have to reach out to it, understandably with a "wee" bit of apprehension, and begin raising a generation of children that are encouraged to join the force and begin enforcing the rule of law (if not in "their" country, at least in "their" neighborhood. The proposal for regionalized, community-based police forces, each accountable to a local police authority, may be the only way to effect this type of change.

In essence, that's all that needs to be done. Can you see now why I'm not troubled by the "D" word?

Portions of this article have appeared in the San Francisco Irish newspaper called The New Irish Gael.
DAN VANDEMORTEL is a paralegal with Morrison & Foerster LLP, the law firm that represents Kevin Barry Artt. He is also the editor of Northern Ireland Alert's annual Northern Ireland Congressional Scorecard. Mr. VandeMortel lives in San Francisco and has recently returned from a trip to Northern Ireland.

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