Sinn Fein rejects police reform plan

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, AUG 18. A British-Irish plan to replace Northern Ireland's controversial Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) with a communally more diverse and democratic police force - a long- standing demand of the province's Catholic community - has been summarily rejected by Sinn Fein which today insisted on more radical police reforms.

This was seen as yet another setback to the efforts to revive the peace process bogged down in a dispute over policing and decommissioning. The plan was intended to break the deadlock by trading police reforms for an agreement on decommissioning by IRA. With Sinn Fein, however, refusing to bite it, observers saw little prospect of an IRA initiative on decommissioning and said the political crisis was likely to deepen as Unionists remained determined not to go ahead with the Good Friday Agreement in the absence of visible progress on decommissioning.

The Northern Ireland Secretary, Dr. John Reid was clearly dismayed and in his first public show of irritation he said: ``We can change the structure. But we cannot change hearts and minds where there is no openness and no willingness to change.'' He said the plan offered a new beginning for the two communities to come together, and sought cross-community support for it. He said the reforms represented the ``spirit and substance'' of the Patten Commission's recommendations but Sinn Fein maintained that they fell far short of what Sir Chris Patten, the former Hong Kong Governor, had recommended in his report.

``Is this the British Government's delivery of their commitment to deliver Patten and quite clearly the answer is no...and we will not be recommending support within our constituency to the policing plan as it stands,'' the Sinn Fein Chairman, Mr. Mitchel McLaughlin said. Dr. Reid, on the other hand, claimed that there was a ``lot of nonsense'' being talked about the Patten report and, in fact, in some respects, the plan was an improvement. He still hoped that Sinn Fein would review its position and set August 21 as the deadline for parties to respond to the plan. He was concerned that Catholics who wanted to join the new police force should not be stopped.

The reaction from other parties, including Sinn Fein's moderate nationalist rival, the Social Democratic and Liberal Party (SDLP), was more encouraging. Mr. David Trimble's Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) also indicated its backing for the plan which is aimed at removing RUC's pro-Protestant tilt by recruiting more Catholics to the proposed new force to be called the Police Service for Northern Ireland. There would be 50 per cent Catholics and 50 per cent Protestants on it and the force would have its own symbols - flag, badge, etc - in a move intended to assure the Catholic community that the ``hated'' RUC is really and truly a thing of the past.

Commentators believed that Dr. Reid might go ahead with the plan with the UUP and SDLP backing (though officially they have yet to say yes), hoping that a positive cross-community response might force Sinn Fein to think again.

On the other hand, it could further harden its stand on decommissioning and prolong the political crisis which erupted in July when Mr. Trimble resigned as head of the power-sharing Government insisting that the IRA must start giving up its weapons as envisaged in the Good Friday Agreement.

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Section  : International
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