Ardfheis to debate policing in January

Sinn Féin statement:A special Sinn Féin ardfheis in January will debate a motion calling for support for the Police Service of Northern Ireland, the Garda and the criminal justice system, a statement in the party president's name announced yesterday after a six-hour meeting of the party's ardchomhairle in Dublin.

The statement said the ardchomhairle had backed a motion put by Gerry Adams to convene the ardfheis on the policing issue.

Mr Adams had said that profound changes had been secured, particularly in the intensive talks with the British government over the past number of weeks.

On foot of those changes, the Sinn Féin ardchomhairle was convening the special ardfheis and, if other bodies, including the two governments and the DUP responded positively, it would take place in January.

Mr Adams said the motion would be made public in the coming days, when it had been distributed to Sinn Féin members.

The section of the statement detailing what ardfheis delegates will debate reads:

"Included in the motion is a commitment to:

• Democratic accountability: devolution of policing and justice to the Assembly;

support for the police services, the Garda Síochána and the PSNI and criminal justice system;

hold the police and criminal justice systems fully to account both democratically and legally;

appoint party representatives to the policing board and district policing partnership boards to secure fair, impartial and effective policing with the community;

authorise Sinn Féin ministers to take the ministerial pledge of office; actively encourage everyone in the community to co-operate fully with the police services in tackling crime in all areas and actively supporting all the criminal justice institutions.

• Human rights and truth recovery: equality and human rights to be at the heart of the new dispensation;

equality of treatment for all victims and effective truth recovery mechanisms.

• Ending repression and political policing: total opposition to any involvement by British security service/MI5 in civic policing; total opposition to the use of plastic bullets;

ensuring there is no place in the PSNI for those guilty of human rights abuses."

Mr Adams said the party leadership would conduct a widespread debate within the party chaired by Dublin MEP Mary Lou McDonald.

There would also be a series of meetings with the wider republican and nationalist community, including the families of "our patriot dead and victims of state murder and collusion".

Mr Adams added: "I realise that this is a very difficult issue for many nationalists and republicans, not because we oppose law and order but because our experience is of a police service which served only one section of the community and which was involved in murder, torture, collusion and shoot-to-kill."