Plastic Bullets Kill
Bullet campaigners to sue
By Eamonn Houston
e.houston@dailyireland.com
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The faces of those killed by plastic bullets - click on thumbnail to view original mural pic by CRAZYFENIAN
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Campaigners are taking legal action against the Northern Ireland Policing Board over the introduction of new plastic bullets, it was revealed yesterday.
The attenuating energy projectile bullets yesterday replaced the previous plastic bullet in the armouries of the PSNI, having been approved by a special meeting of the Policing Board in March.
Protesters yesterday staged a mock Policing Board meeting in Derry to highlight their opposition to the new bullets. Various kinds of street theatre were performed during the meeting.
Local author Dave Duggan chaired the meeting, which was watched by dozens of shoppers and tourists.
According to the Derry-based Pat Finucane Centre, the decision of the board should be declared void because three members of the 19-strong body had voted against the new crowd-control weapon.
The United Campaign Against Plastic Bullets indicated that its legal team would launch a bid to overturn the Policing Board’s decision to deploy the new weapons.
A spokesman for the Pat Finucane Centre said the decision had ignored the views of the entire nationalist community in the North as well as dissenting voices within the unionist community and human-rights organisations.
The plastic bullet was responsible for the deaths of 17 people during the Troubles, including nine children.
Campaigners estimate that the number of people injured by the weapon runs into thousands.
The baton round, as it became known, was introduced into the North by the British army in 1973. Its predecessor, the rubber bullet, was first deployed in 1970 and resulted in three deaths and many serious injuries.
The rubber bullet was later withdrawn because the serious injury rates were not considered acceptable. The plastic bullet was deployed for use by the Royal Ulster Constabulary in 1978.
The Policing Board has claimed that the new bullets are “less lethal”.
However, the Committee on the Administration of Justice, a human-rights group, said the Policing Board had held no public meetings on the matter and sought no independent medical advice.
A spokesperson for the Derry Children’s Commission said: “The introduction of this new weapon jeopardises the safety of children and ignores the rights of children, who are the most vulnerable section of society.
“We are completely opposed to the introduction this week of the new plastic bullet.”
Clara O’Reilly, a spokeswoman for the United Campaign Against Plastic Bullets, said: “It is with a mixture of sadness and anger that we find ourselves condemning the introduction today of yet another generation of plastic bullets, renamed the AEP.
“Some have attempted to justify this by saying that none have been fired in over two years.
“Yet only last week we had the Police Federation demanding that the rules should be relaxed to allow PSNI officers to fire plastic bullets more often, and this in the context of heightened tension in Belfast and Derry.
“We are in the process of instructing our legal team to instigate legal action against the Policing Board as a result of the undemocratic and secretive nature of the decision-making process.
“Shame on the Policing Board, shame on the chief constable and shame on the NIO.”
