SWEEPING reforms in the RUC have been proposed by the senior US politician who will chair Congressional hearings on the RUC in Washington next month, Joe Carroll reports.
Mr Chris Patten, who chairs the commission on RUC reform, has declined to testify at the hearings.
Mr Ben Gilman, chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on International Relations, has called for "root and branch reforms of the RUC as a minimum".
The proposals include a change in "the title, uniform and other unacceptable symbols of the current police service in order to help create a new and acceptable community policing service".
There should be an end to the "paramilitary role and ethos of the RUC", he said, and a "prohibition on police membership in the Orange Order".
It would be necessary to bring in "new police leadership, starting at the very top, who will publicly apologise to all of the community for past policing abuses to help bring about much-needed reconciliation".