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17/09/2009
'Shoot to Kill' Reports Demanded
As a Belfast coroner yesterday gave the PSNI Chief Constable just weeks to hand over top secret reports on an alleged RUC 'shoot-to-kill' policy during the North's Troubles, a politician has urged immediate compliance.
Coroner John Leckey issued the seven-week deadline in the face of ongoing police reluctance to disclose the never published Stalker and Sampson reports, to assist his probe into the RUC killings of six men in late 1982.
While Mr Leckey has been given sight of documents, he has ordered that they are made available to the court so the inquests can finally get under way.
SDLP Policing Spokesperson Alex Attwood, said the PSNI should comply with the order of the Belfast Coroner and provide secret reports on shoot-to-kill policy to the court.
"This is a welcome and useful order from an inquest court. The principle that the State and its agencies should disclose relevant information, intelligence and reports in order to assist due process and the search for truth is vital and non-negotiable. The police must now - far too late - comply with the order of the court and with this principle.
"This is an immediate requirement and responsibility for the incoming Chief Constable, who takes up his post within days.
"He must demonstrate that the PSNI are not in any shape or form clinging to the past," said the MLA.
He also said that the SDLP would go further on the issue and urged that the Stalker/Samson/Stevens reports should be published.
"Publication of these reports is a vital element in understanding the past and assisting victims and survivors get the truth of the extent of wrongdoing and illegality by army, police and intelligence agencies," he said.
"The Stevens report in particular is much more about the infiltration of the IRA and the placing of agents of influence in high places than it is about loyalism."
However, he also said that the principle of disclosure and sharing must "extend to all".
"The utter failure of the IRA, UDA and UVF to come forth at a leadership and organisational level to disclose their knowledge of the past should not be tolerated," he suggested.
(BMcC/GK)
Coroner John Leckey issued the seven-week deadline in the face of ongoing police reluctance to disclose the never published Stalker and Sampson reports, to assist his probe into the RUC killings of six men in late 1982.
While Mr Leckey has been given sight of documents, he has ordered that they are made available to the court so the inquests can finally get under way.
SDLP Policing Spokesperson Alex Attwood, said the PSNI should comply with the order of the Belfast Coroner and provide secret reports on shoot-to-kill policy to the court.
"This is a welcome and useful order from an inquest court. The principle that the State and its agencies should disclose relevant information, intelligence and reports in order to assist due process and the search for truth is vital and non-negotiable. The police must now - far too late - comply with the order of the court and with this principle.
"This is an immediate requirement and responsibility for the incoming Chief Constable, who takes up his post within days.
"He must demonstrate that the PSNI are not in any shape or form clinging to the past," said the MLA.
He also said that the SDLP would go further on the issue and urged that the Stalker/Samson/Stevens reports should be published.
"Publication of these reports is a vital element in understanding the past and assisting victims and survivors get the truth of the extent of wrongdoing and illegality by army, police and intelligence agencies," he said.
"The Stevens report in particular is much more about the infiltration of the IRA and the placing of agents of influence in high places than it is about loyalism."
However, he also said that the principle of disclosure and sharing must "extend to all".
"The utter failure of the IRA, UDA and UVF to come forth at a leadership and organisational level to disclose their knowledge of the past should not be tolerated," he suggested.
(BMcC/GK)
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