[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 37 (Wednesday, March 29, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E440-E441]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  THE NORTHERN IRELAND PEACE PROCESS: POLICING ADVANCES AND REMAINING 
                               CHALLENGES

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 29, 2006

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, on March 16 I cochaired a 
hearing on the Northern Ireland peace process, on the advances in 
police performance and behavior, and on the remaining challenges the 
Police Service of Northern Ireland faces to its becoming fully accepted 
as a fair and impartial police service. The hearing was my 11th hearing 
on Northern Ireland in not quite 9 years, and I shall continue to 
follow the events on Northern Ireland closely and encourage reform for 
as long as necessary.
  This hearing helped the U.S. Congress and the American people to 
better understand the current issues in the always complex situation in 
Northern Ireland. It provided guidance to our efforts as we continue to 
seek to assist in the realization of a durable peace and the guarantee 
of fundamental human rights in Northern Ireland. The establishment of 
peace, justice and prosperity in Northern Ireland, which we have all 
hoped, worked and prayed for, is still not a reality. There are many 
encouraging signs, but also disturbing ones, and we are still not there 
yet.
  One of the most encouraging developments is, of course, the IRA's 
renunciation of armed struggle, and the decommissioning of its 
weapons--a remarkable step in the path to peace. The IRA must follow 
through on its proclamations and cease all criminal activities as well. 
The most disturbing factor, however, is the alienation of the unionist 
community. The large majority of decent people on the unionist side, 
who hope for peace as ardently as nationalists, are skeptical of IRA 
promises. They are also terrorized by their own paramilitaries. Those 
pararnilitaries need to follow the IRA example, and disarm, and cease 
their criminal activities. They are right now one of the greatest 
dangers to peace and stability.
  The Government of the United Kingdom has begun all party negotiations 
to restore the Northern Ireland Assembly and the power sharing 
executive. It is also preparing legislation to devolve the 
administration of justice and policing to a restored Northern Irish 
executive. Mitchell Reiss, President Bush's Special Envoy to the 
Northern Ireland peace process briefed us on the current prospects and 
challenges facing the restoration of self-government in Northern 
Ireland.

  There has been some progress in the continuing reform of Northern 
Ireland's police force. Nearly 7 years ago I chaired a hearing on 
policing in Northern Ireland. Chris Patten, who had just released the 
famous report that bears his name, testified before us. Now we shall 
have a chance to hear about the progress that has been made in 
implementing the 175 recommendations made by the Patten Report. There 
is a new police force, the Policing Service of Northern Ireland, PSNI; 
there is a vigorous and fiercely independent Police Ombudsman's Office, 
whose chief, Nuala O'Loane, has been a catalyst for reform. The Police 
Ombudsman's office has been recognized as an effective mechanism for 
holding

[[Page E441]]

the police in Northern Ireland accountable and helping people develop 
some confidence in a policing service that has faced credible charges 
of collusion in crime and assassination. In fact a poll conducted in 
March of last year showed that public confidence in the ombudsman's 
objectivity was high, with 78 percent of respondents saying they were 
confident that complaints were dealt with impartially.
  There is now a Policing Board in Northern Ireland, composed of 
independent and party representatives, designed to provide civilian 
control and fair, nonsectarian, policing. There are district police 
partnerships, to guarantee that both the police and the communities 
they guard understand that the role of the police is to protect the 
community, not to impose some form of political control. The Patten 
Commission also envisioned a police force more representative of the 
whole community. Although Northern Ireland is nearly 45 percent 
Catholic, the old police force, the Royal Ulster Constabulary, RUC, was 
over 90 percent Protestant, and often seemed to function more as an 
auxiliary to loyalist paramilitaries than the upholder of law and 
order. Today, recruits to PSNI are supposed to be 50 percent Catholic, 
so that in time the police will hopefully be representative of the 
people they are supposed to protect. Now only 20 percent of the police 
force is Catholic. It's an improvement, but only a start. In the 
disturbing riots last fall and summer by unionists, the police 
vigorously enforced the law instead of standing aside as they often did 
before. This again is a hopeful sign.
  But questions remain about ``bad apples'' who may still remain 
somewhere in the ranks of Northern Ireland's police and about Special 
Branch members. The U.S. Congress has long understood the importance of 
supporting police reform and community reconciliation in Northern 
Ireland. As the author of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for 
FY 2000-2001--H.R. 3427; Public Law 106-113--I have been particularly 
interested in training and or exchange programs conducted by the 
Federal Bureau of Investigation or other Federal law enforcement 
agencies for the RUC, now PSNI. In fact it was my legislation that 
suspended all FBI-RUC training until 2001, when President Bush 
certified that the human rights and vetting standards established by my 
legislation were implemented in the program.
  In this year's State Department Authorization Bill, which I sponsored 
and which passed the House overwhelmingly, 351-78, I included funds to 
provide specialized investigative training for personnel in the office 
of the Police Ombudsman to ensure that policing in Northern Ireland is 
carried out in compliance with internationally recognized human rights 
standards. We also amended the authorization for the International Fund 
for Ireland, IFI, to provide up to $7 million for programs that enhance 
relations between communities, and between the police and the 
communities they serve, promote human rights training for police, 
enhance peaceful mediation in neighborhoods of continued conflict, 
promote training programs to enhance the new district partnership 
police boards, and assist in the transition of former British military 
installations and prisons into sites for peaceful, community-supported 
activities, such as housing, retail, and commercial development. We 
hope the Senate will act soon on this important legislation. The 
Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill--now Public Law 109-102--
specifically allows the IFI to use the U.S. contribution to be used for 
training police to promote human rights and rule of law, and to foster 
improved relations between police and the communities they serve.

  But one remaining area of great concern are the more than 3,000 
unsolved murders between 1969 and the signing of the Good Friday 
agreement in 1998. Punishment of the guilty in many cases may not be 
possible, because of previous amnesties which have been granted to 
promote peace in Northern Ireland. But true peace and true democracy 
cannot be founded on lies and cover-ups. An integral part of police 
reform is investigation of police and government collusion in past 
criminal acts. Only the truth can guarantee that Northern Ireland's new 
police force is established on a sound basis of respect for law and 
justice, something the previous force, the RUC could never claim. Only 
the truth can guarantee that the people of Northern Ireland accept 
their police as legitimate.
  The government has recently instituted the Historical Enquiries Team 
to investigate and resolve these cases. This has the potential--if 
operated with transparency and openness--to be a critical, helpful 
step. Time will tell. Meanwhile, there are several cases which require 
special attention. The British and Irish Governments in 2001 jointly 
appointed Judge Peter Cory, a preeminent retired justice of the Supreme 
Court of Canada to determine whether independent commissions should 
investigate possible state sponsored collusion in six notorious and 
horrific murders. They also pledged to abide by his recommendations. 
Two years ago Judge Cory issued his report and called for five of the 
six murders to be investigated independently. Yet the British 
Government has still not appointed an inquiry commission into the 
murder of the human rights attorney Patrick Finucane, who was gunned 
down in his home, in front of his wife and three small children, in 
1989. Every 1 of the past 10 hearings I have chaired on human rights 
and police reform in Northern Ireland has dealt with Patrick Finucane's 
murder. Yet still nothing has been done. The Government of the UK must 
find a way to institute a credible inquiry which will be accepted by 
all, especially the Finucane family. The British Government has finally 
begun its inquiry commission, as demanded by Judge Cory, into police 
misconduct in the murder of Rosemary Nelson, another heroic human 
rights lawyer, and mother of three, who fell victim to a car bomb in 
March 1999. Rosemary, 6 months earlier had testified before my 
committee about the harassment, intimidation and threats made against 
her by the RUC. No one has ever been charged in her murder. That 
inquiry was finally begun on April 19 but has made little progress so 
far, and serious questions remain as to whether the investigation is 
being conducted properly. If the population of Northern Ireland is to 
cease relying on paramilitaries for protection, and transfer its trust 
to the police, it must have confidence that the police and the 
authorities deserve trust. These inquiries need to be done, and done 
well, as soon as possible.

  Finally, although political reform and police reform are absolute 
preconditions for all progress, only economic development can finally 
end the terrible poverty, among both Catholics and Protestants, 
nationalists and unionists, which helps breed the violence. Fully 
employed, prosperous and prospering people, who can see tomorrow as 
better than today, rarely attack their neighbors. The Catholic and 
nationalist community, although worried, looks on the fulfillment of 
the Good Friday agreements with great hope. Too many in the unionist 
community, unfortunately, have been exploited by extremists to look 
upon all gains by Catholics as setbacks for themselves, that all jobs 
that Catholics get, as jobs that they lose. Only economic development 
can provide the jobs, the housing, the public services that all the 
people of Northern Ireland, in both communities, need for a better 
life. We have continued our support--$13.5 million in 2006--for the 
International Fund for Ireland for both 2006 and 2007, not only to 
promote police reform, as I mentioned above, but also to promote 
economic development which is critical to achieving a just and lasting 
peace. Now that we are nearer to success, this is no time to falter in 
our efforts.
  The IFI has played a vital role in economic progress in Northern 
Ireland. The U.S. has contributed over half of the total fund, about 
$400 million in the past 20 years. And it has helped. In the 1990's 
Northern Ireland's unemployment fell by 40 percent. The fund has 
created nearly 38,000 jobs. But the IFI does not only fund material 
progress, and its greatest achievements are not material: It has also 
developed a series of community building programs, promoting greater 
dialogue and understanding between Catholic and Protestant, including 
leadership programs designed to develop a new generation of leaders in 
Northern Ireland to bring about a more peaceful and prosperous future 
in the region. Young people are the key to the future everywhere, but 
in Northern Ireland they are absolutely crucial to breaking the cycle 
of discrimination and sectarian violence once and for all. For this 
reason our authorization bill continues support for ``Project 
Children,'' to bring together Catholic and Protestant participants from 
the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, to 
help build peace in Northern Ireland through its children and young 
people.
  Besides Mitchell Reiss, we heard testimony from the Right Honorable 
Sir Desmond Rea, chairman, Northern Ireland Policing Board; Mr. Denis 
Bradley, vice chairman, Northern Ireland Policing Board; Ms. Maggie 
Beirne, director, Committee for the Administration of Justice; Ms. Jane 
Winter, director, British Irish Rights Watch; Ms. Archana Pyati, senior 
associate, Human Rights Defenders Program, Human Rights First.

                          ____________________