Background on the Marches

Why Plastic Bullets are Bad

Applying International Standards in Northern Ireland

On June 28, 1999, the Northern Ireland Parades Commission banned the Orange Order from marching down the largely nationalist Garvaghy Road following an upcoming religious service at the Drumcree parish church in Portadown on July 4 (full decision at http://www.paradescommission.org/junejuly99.htm). The commission banned the same march last year which gave rise to violent protests by loyalist supporters of the Orange Order.

Civil unrest broke out across Northern Ireland culminating in the deaths of Jason, Mark, and Richard Quinn, three young boys killed in a loyalist arson attack on their home. The Portadown Orangemen have maintained their protest at Drumcree church for the past year giving rise to serious tensions in and around Portadown. Catholic residents have reported routine intimidation and sectarian assaults by loyalists in Portadown. The murder on March 15, 1999, of Rosemary Nelson, the legal advisor to the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition, and the subsequent killing of Elizabeth O'Neill in a sectarian fire bomb attack have further heightened tensions.

Human Rights Watch has monitored the annual marches in Northern Ireland for the past three years. Our primary focus is on the conduct of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), Northern Ireland's police force, and how abusive policing and calculated decisions to violate people's human rights by law enforcement authorities often exacerbate tensions and fuel violence. Policing is the single most important human rights issue in Northern Ireland today. We believe that recent developments with respect to policing may make this marching season potentially more explosive than past seasons and threaten the already fragile peace process:

• This is a "test" summer. The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) is under fire on a number of fronts. The Policing Commission chaired by Chris Patten will issue its final report on new policing arrangements for Northern Ireland by the summer's end. With fundamental change imminent, will the RUC use the summer to prove that it can police in a way that respects human rights or will it take a "last stand" with abusive practices that have make it one of the most heavily criticized police forces in the West?

• Rosemary Nelson's murder inflames tensions around the Drumcree march. The Drumcree march in Portadown is always one of the most contentious. Rosemary Nelson was the legal advisor to the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition—which opposes Orange marches in nationalist sections of Portadown. She alleged that the police routinely threatened her through some of her clients. Nelson was brutally murdered in a car bomb attack on March 15, 1999, by loyalist paramilitaries. Although Nelson won't be there this year, her presence will still be felt. Calls for a completely independent investigation into her murder have gone unheeded. Residents of the Garvaghy Road community claim that loyalists and even police have taunted them about the killing. Nelson's murder has made them very afraid and those fears will be particularly acute during this marching season.

• Are the police guilty of colluding in murder? A June 21, 1999, a BBC Panorama program raised questions about possible RUC collusion in the murders of defense lawyers Patrick Finucane—killed by loyalist paramilitaries at his Belfast home in 1989—and Rosemary Nelson. RUC Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan has come under intense scrutiny in recent days for his many contradictory responses to the program's allegations. On June 22, 1999, a former member of a loyalist paramilitary group, William Alfred Stobie, was arrested for Finucane's murder. Stobie has denied the murder, but his former paramilitary group, the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), publicly claimed responsibility for it in the immediate aftermath of the killing. On June 24, Stobie admitted in court that he was also a police informer at the time of the murder. This case has further undermined the credibility of the RUC and is likely to raise tensions during the volatile summer marching season.

Human Rights Watch has severely criticized the RUC and the British government in the past for egregious human rights violations committed by the police during the marching season. Although RUC authorities insist they are simply "maintaining public order," our monitors have consistently found that abusive police conduct can be the catalyst for violence.

Our observers, trained to monitor police abuse, have charged the RUC with: the illegal use of plastic bullets (against both loyalists and nationalists); the excessive use of physical force against demonstrators; the intimidating use of land rovers to "charge" demonstrators and then retreat; the use of overtly sectarian language in the course of policing; and the total absence of identification on individual officers, so as to make it impossible for citizens to lodge complaints against abusive police.

Human Rights Watch will carefully monitor the July 1999 marching season. Our observer will routinely report back to New York, and any press releases issued by Human Rights Watch will be posted to this web site. The information we gather this year will form the basis of a final submission to the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland, vested by the Good Friday Agreement with responsibility for making recommendations at summer's end for fundamental policing changes for a peacetime Northern Ireland.