Background on the Marches

Why Plastic Bullets are Bad

Applying International Standards in Northern Ireland

Of the methods currently available, the plastic baton round is regarded by her majesty's inspector of constabulary to be the most practicable and effective equipment available to the RUC to meet the particular circumstances regularly encountered by the RUC on the streets of Northern Ireland.

-Northern Ireland Police Authority statement as quoted in The Irish News of June 4, 1998.

The plastic bullet is the most controversial weapon used by police in Northern Ireland. Plastic bullets are approximately 4.5 inches long and 1.5 inches in diameter. They weigh about 4.75 ounces and are made of rock-hard solid PVC (polyvinyl chloride). When a plastic bullet is fired, it leaves the barrel at approximately 160 miles per hour. Since the introduction of plastic bullets in Northern Ireland in 1973, more then 60,000 rounds have been fired. Fourteen people have been killed by plastic bullets in the last two decades in Northern Ireland and three others have died from wounds inflicted by rubber bullets, which were in use before plastic bullets were introduced.

In 1991 Human Rights Watch called for a total ban on the use of plastic bullets in Northern Ireland and today we renew that call. The Royal Ulster Constabulary's (RUC) indiscriminate firing of plastic bullets, disregard for internal guidelines regulating the use of plastic bullets, and, at times, firing with an apparent sectarian bias all highlight the need for the government of the United Kingdom to find alternative means of crowd control for the protection of officers and members of the public.

The RUC claims that plastic bullets cause fewer and less severe injuries than live ammunition. This belief has led to the indiscriminate use of plastic bullets that would be unthinkable were live ammunition being used. In 1996, over 7,000 rounds were fired by the army and police during unionist and nationalist protests. In London/Derry alone, 2,815 plastic bullets were fired from July 11 to July 14, 1996. Although plastic bullets are labeled "non-lethal," fourteen people, including seven children, have been killed in Northern Ireland by plastic bullets between 1974 and 1996, and hundreds more have suffered grievous and life-changing injuries including blindness and shattered bones.

RUC officers have consistently disregarded the force's own internal guidelines for regulating the use of plastic bullets. These guidelines were recounted to Human Rights Watch verbally by the RUC Chief Constable, Ronnie Flanagan in November of 1996, and include: not firing at a range of less then twenty meters, issuing a verbal warning, firing only if the safety of police officers or others or property is seriously threatened, firing only at selected individuals and never indiscriminately at a crowd, and aiming to strike the lower part of the body. The sheer numbers of rounds fired and the types of injuries reported (head and chest injuries) lead Human Rights Watch to conclude that plastic bullet gunners abuse and routinely disregard the guidelines. Significantly, six of the people killed by plastic bullets were subsequently proven not to have been rioting at all. They were merely victims of the indiscriminate use of a potentially deadly weapon. Furthermore, the use of potentially lethal force to protect property clearly contravenes international standards for the use of force.

Allegations of the sectarian use of plastic bullets are supported by eyewitness and victim testimony collected by Human Rights Watch and also by the disparity in the number of plastic bullets fired. In 1996, according to RUC statistics, eight times as many plastic bullets were fired in three and a half days of nationalist protest as were fired during four and a half days of unionist protest. Moreover, numerous people have testified that verbal abuse by the RUC was sectarian in nature.

A review of plastic bullets conducted by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) in the aftermath of the summer of 1996 events indicated that police responses to incidents of public disorder are inadequate in terms of the use of potentially lethal force and in the future must be geared to the development and use of tactical alternatives. The report also found that where plastic bullet guns are routinely issued, they carry the potential to escalate public disorder. This finding supports the claims of human rights organizations that the appearance of plastic bullet gunners is often provocative and can serve to exacerbate an already tense but not yet violent situation.

Human Rights Watch calls once again for an immediate and total ban on the use of plastic bullets in Northern Ireland. We join a long list of organizations and bodies opposed to the weapon. In 1982, the European Parliament voted to ban the use of plastic bullets throughout the European Community. A 1997 technical assistance report on public order and police equipment recently commissioned by the Civil Liberties Committee of the European Parliament expresses concern over the continued use of plastic bullets. A 1986 conference of the Democratic Unionist Part (DUP) criticized the "blatant misuse of the plastic baton round in Portadown" and said the bullet was a "killer weapon, designed to kill or maim." Justice for All, a civil liberties group based in the Shankill area and established to monitor human rights abuses within the Protestant community, strongly criticized the "illegal use of plastic bullets" at the Whiterock Orange Parade in 1993. In 1995, the U.N. Committee Against Torture expressed concern over the continued use of plastic bullets in Northern Ireland. The Report of the International Body on Arms Decommissioning, issued in January 1996, called for a review of the use of plastic bullets as a confidence-building measure attendant to the peace negotiations. The U.S. State Department's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1996 section on the United Kingdom noted the widespread criticism of plastic bullet use by human rights monitors, the European Parliament ban, and the high numbers of head and upper body injuries in spite of RUC guidelines. The U.S. State Department's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1997 noted that plastic bullets supplied to the RUC in 1994 and still in use in 1997 "were defective, traveling at velocities that exceeded the upper recommended limit." Approximately 9,000 rounds had been fired by the time the defective stocks were removed.

When the British Labour Party was in the opposition, it pledged to ban the use of plastic bullets if it reassumed power. Human Rights Watch urges the Labour Party to honor its previously stated commitment to ban the use of plastic bullets in Northern Ireland now.