A number of ex-internees called yesterday on anyone who had suffered abuse at the hands of the RUC to make a submission to the Patten Commission. The group from west Belfast, which includes people mistreated by the RUC after their internment in the 1970s, intends to submit its own report to the commission.

The group's submission alleges abuses which include being thumped, kicked, burned by cigarettes, lifted up by the hair or nostrils, forced to stand for long periods and being sexual assaulted. It is also claims that pictures of mutilated bodies, death threats, and verbal abuse were used to frighten internees.

One ex-internee, Mr Liam Shanahan, was arrested in October 1971 and claims to have been systematically tortured for nine days. "My head was covered with a hood for seven of those days so I don't know who tortured me, all I know is that I was tortured." To this day he says he does not know the charges against him.

The chairman of the Saoire Movement and co-ordinator of the group, Mr Martin Meehan, said yesterday the RUC must be disbanded and cannot be reformed as many of the officers involved in the torture of prisoners have since risen to "a very high rank" within the force.

Mr Meehan also stressed that no RUC personnel have ever been convicted or disciplined for any offence committed from 197175, even though the European Court of Human Rights found the force guilty of inhumane treatment during that time.