6,000 plastic bullets fired since Drumcree stand-off

THE RUC fired 6,002 plastic bullets in the North between Sunday, July 7th, when the Drumcree confrontation started, and yesterday morning, according to police statistics. This is the highest use of plastic bullets in the North since the hunger strikes 1981.

But the level of injuries and the claims of "indiscriminate use" have renewed the controversy over the use of plastic bullets in the North.

The Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ), the Northern Ireland Civil Liberties council, reported more than 150 plastic bullet injuries in weekend violence in Derry.

Ms Angela Hegarty said that she had seen imprints of plastic bullets on foreheads, faces, shoulders and legs. She believed the presence of the CAJ on the ground observing the situation had prevented further serious injuries.

At Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry, 74 people were treated and 23 were detained, the majority with plastic bullet injuries to the head. A man remains seriously ill in hospital in Belfast from a plastic bullet injury to the head after being transferred from Derry. Seven others are still being treated in hospital.

A further 31 people were treated in hospital in Letterkenny last night, the United Campaign Against Plastic Bullets held four demonstrations in various parts of Belfast, to protest against the "indiscriminate" use by police of plastic bullets.

The organisation has been lobbying since 1984 for the banning of plastic bullets, which have killed 17 people, and injured hundreds of others in the North. Plastic bullets are not sanctioned for use in Britain.

The group said that while it opposed the use of plastic bullets generally, it noted that their use by the RUC against nationalists was in "higher proportion than against loyalists".

The CAJ has also expressed serious concern that in certain areas of Derry "there was a large use of plastic bullets which was completely indiscriminate". There were allegations that police had fired on people coming out of fast food outlets and a disco.

An RUC spokesman said, however, that there was "strict and very tight control, even during the most vicious rioting". He also said that any complaints would be investigated thoroughly.

In any one year, the average number of plastic bullets fired is about 3,000. Comparable figures show that in 1981, the year of the hunger strike when there was serious street violence, the police fired 29,695 plastic bullets. In 1985, the year the Anglo Irish Agreement was signed, 1,100 rounds were fired.

On Saturday night/Sunday morning the committee counted 514 plastic bullets fired in Derry.

The United Campaign said there were three basic rules about the use of plastic bullets that they should never be fired above waist level, never less than 20 metres, away and never in a non-riot situation.

The organisation added that the police must have contravened the regulations given the serious head, chest and other injuries suffered during weekend incidents.

The RUC said that plastic bullets or baton rounds were used in accordance with the "principle of minimum and reasonable amount of force necessary in the protection of life and property, the preservation of the peace and the prevention and detection of crime".