THE RUC has described as "naive" an international human rights report which claimed that poor policing" contributed to the violence and civil disturbances in Northern Ireland last summer.
The New York based Human Rights Watch yesterday called for radical changes in the RUC to make the police more accountable to the public.
The organisation complained that the "draconian police powers" enjoyed by the RUC, the police's handling of last summer's marching season and the "persistent allegations" of collusion between the security forces and loyalist paramilitaries raised issues of urgent human rights concern.
Human Rights Watch stated that the dramatic rise in paramilitary punishment assaults and expulsions was also a matter of serious concern.
At a press conference in Belfast, Human Rights Watch called for a ban on plastic bullets; an independent body to take decisions on parades; and a reform of policing structures which would make the RUC more accountable to the public. Its report, "To Serve Without Favor (sic)", further urged that the Police Authority should be consulted by the RUC on security and operational matters. It also called for the closure of Castlereagh Holding Centre in Belfast.
Human Rights Watch urged repeal of the North's emergency legislation, which it claimed led to substantial violations of human rights. "The government of the United Kingdom must recognise that emergency laws such as those enforced in Northern Ireland often serve to sustain political violence by creating an environment in which individual human rights are routinely violated."
The report focused on what Human Rights Watch called the abuses committed during the marching season of 1996 in the hope that "the poor policing that contributed to the violence will not be replicated in the approaching 1997 season.
"Despite RUC claims of being caught in the middle of disputes between nationalists and unionists over the right to march, a series of police actions - sanctioned by the British government - exacerbated the conflict", it alleged.
"These actions resulted in the effective submission of state authorities to the threat of unionist violence and included excessive use of force against peaceful demonstrators, the indiscriminate use of plastic bullets against both unionist and nationalist protesters, and a general failure to halt illegal activities such as the blockade of the airport and the establishment of illegal roadblocks."
Human Rights Watch said that, since "normal policing functions" had been "abandoned in many communities in Northern Ireland", paramilitary organisations on both sides had assumed a "quasi policing role".
It complained that, in the absence of normal policing, paramilitary organisations acted as "investigator, prosecutor, judge and jury, and they carry out their own sentences".
It called on the IRA and the loyalist paramilitaries immediately to halt punishment shootings, beatings and expulsions. It said the RUC should perform "normal policing functions in all areas of Northern Ireland" and that political parties should not support the creation of alternative "justice" systems.
The RUC, in a statement, said that the criticisms of its handling of last summer's marches were "naive". The report showed "little knowledge about policing a divided community".
The Sinn Fein chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, said that the report confirmed the need for "complete disbandment" of the RUC.
