Human rights groups call for bullets ban
CLARA REILLY OF THE United Campaign Against Plastics (UCAPB) has
called on the British Labour Party to ``honour their pre-election
policy and ban [plastic bullets] immediately''. Reilly was
speaking after the British government announced that its armed
forces in the Six Counties had been using ``faulty'' plastic
bullets since 1994.
The Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ), Sinn Féin
and the SDLP echoed Reilly's call for plastic bullets to be
banned.
Up to 9,000 rounds from a faulty consignment of bullets were
fired by the crown forces since 1994 and before their withdrawal
in April of this year. According to the British government's
Defence Procurement Minister Lord Gilbert one third of a 284,500
batch of plastic bullets issued in 1994 had a velocity of 72-76
metres per second instead of the regulation 70 metres or 156
miles per hour.
Insisting that the weapon be banned Clara Reilly stated that the
British government has before offered the excuse that some of
those killed by the anti-riot weapon died because of faults. ``The
design faults of these weapons had been known since 1974,'' she
said. She also said it was ``significant that this admission comes
days after a report by the largest human rights organisation in
the USA damned the RUC and British Army for the use of these
horrific weapons''.
Sinn Féin's national chairperson Mitchel McLaughlin also
dismissed the news as ``a cynical attempt at damage limitation''.
``The injuries received by nationalist youths in the aftermath of
Drumcree last year were not down to faulty weapons, but were the
result of the RUC and British Army deliberately intending to kill
or maim. Almost 5,000 of these bullets were fired in Derry alone
over a three night period last July,'' he said.
Seventeen people, mostly children, have been killed by plastic
and rubber bullets since their introduction, most struck in the
upper body or head in contradiction to the regulations for the
use of the weapon.
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