A resolution calling for the RUC to be excluded from the inquiry into the murder of Ms Rosemary Nelson may be approved by the US House of Representatives. But some who are behind the toughly worded resolution believe the State Department, with the backing of the British government, is trying to block it. The draft resolution has been approved by the human rights sub-committee of the House and will soon be taken up by the full International Affairs Committee before being voted by the House.
The chairman of the sub-committee, Mr Chris Smith, told The Irish Times that one dissenting member had been able to slow the progress of the resolution and believed this was because of the opposition of the State Department. Mr Ben Gilman, chairman of the International Affairs Committee who, with Mr Smith, introduced the resolution, said: "While there are some voices who might say, `wait, give the situation time', I say no. According to some in the foreign policy establishment in this town, it is never the right time to do the right thing about Northern Ireland."
Mr Gilman called the RUC involvement in the investigation "problematic and deeply disturbing" and he criticised the statement by the FBI office in London that "the best chance of detecting those responsible lies in the RUC conducting the investigation".
He said that many of the members of Congress concerned at the murder of Ms Nelson asked Dr Mowlam "to establish total independence from the RUC in any inquiry. She has failed to do so."
He recalled that Ms Nelson appeared before the committee last year and "expressed her fears about the RUC. We owe her our best efforts to help find out who is responsible for this cowardly act. The way to do that is through an independent inquiry, not through the RUC."