PSNI chief Matt Baggott has already proven his RUC credentials in his short time in the Six Counties according to éirígí general secretary Breandán Mac Cionnaith.
On Monday [November 30], lawyers acting on behalf of Baggott went to court to request more time to prepare Public Interest Immunity Certificates in order to censor the Stalker and Sampson reports into shoot-to-kill operations by the RUC.
The reports relate to the RUC murders of six people in the north Armagh area between November 11 and December 12 1982.
IRA volunteers Gervaise McKerr, Eugene Toman and Seán Burns were shot dead in Lurgan on November 11; 17-year-old civilian Michael Tighe was shot dead near Craigavon on November 24; and INLA volunteers Séamus Grew and Roddy Carroll were shot dead close to Armagh City on December 12.
Mac Cionnaith said: “By making every effort to prevent the truth coming out about RUC shoot-to-kill cases, Matt Baggott is following in the footsteps of his predecessor Hugh Orde. The fact that the PSNI is working hand-in-glove with MI5 on this issue makes a mockery of claims that the force is in any way accountable to citizens.
“Despite all the talk of community policing, the new PSNI chief is clearly showing that, when it come to protecting the interests of the British state in Ireland, nothing will be allowed to get in the way.”
Mac Cionnaith continued: “Along with firing of plastic bullets, the massive increase in stop & search incidents and the daily harassment of nationalists and republicans, the blocking of the truth behind RUC killings is merely proving that the PSNI has nothing positive to offer communities in the Six Counties.
“In the interests of truth and justice, the Stalker and Sampson reports should be released in full – the reputation of the RUC-PSNI could hardly sink much lower as a result.”
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