Paisley Jnr calls for shoot-to-kill policy
IAN Paisley Jnr has ignited a row by claiming a shoot-to-kill policy against renegade republican killers would be widely supported in Northern Ireland.
The Policing Board member said yesterday the controversial tactic should be used to counter the rising threat from splinter groups such as the Real IRA.
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Mr Paisley's remarks come days after dissident republicans used Semtex for the first time in an attack on police in Fermanagh.
The North Antrim MLA said: "Sooner or later there will be a murder of a police officer unless the police are able to deploy ruthlessness in tracking down and wiping out these dissident members.
"I believe the community will accept such measures and, if dissidents are shot on sight, the community will accept that it is a necessary use of lethal force to prevent dissident republicanism from growing."
He added that he wanted the Stormont Executive to hold a review of the security situation "with a view to ensuring every encouragement is given to the police and Army in the eradication of dissident republicans".
The call for lethal force has sparked outrage among both unionists and nationalists.
Ulster Unionist Policing Board member Basil McCrea branded the comments "inflammatory" and said he would oppose any shoot-to-kill policy.
The Lagan Valley MLA highlighted the case of Brazilian man Jean Charles de Menezes - the 25-year-old shot dead in 2005 at London's Stockwell Tube station by counter-terrorist police who mistook him for suicide bomber Hussain Osman.
He added: "Jean Charles de Menezes was shot dead by police operating a shoot-to-kill policy, and the case is an obvious illustration that mistakes will be made if it is implemented.
"The only way forward for policing is to encourage people of all communities to cooperate with police and tell them what they know.
"Ian Paisley Jnr's inflammatory remarks are unlikely to help with any strategic direction."
And SDLP Policing Board member Dolores Kelly branded Mr Paisley Jnr's support for shoot-to-kill as "dangerous nonsense".
She added: "Some people shoot from the hip, others from the mouth. It seems there are two groups of people who want to drive us back into the past - the ex-provo dissidents and people like Ian Paisley Jnr who are still fighting their rear-guard action against accountable policing in a shared society.
“There is no support among law-abiding people for shoot-to-kill in the past, present or future.”
Sinn Fein Policing Board man Daithi McKay called Mr Paisley Jnr’s comments a “corner boy approach to politics” that showed he “has not learned anything from the past 40 years”.
A number of officers have been injured during shootings blamed on breakaway republicans over the last year, with several lucky to escape with their lives.
Secretary of State Shaun Woodward said last week the activities of dissident republicans were at their highest for five years, with police in Belfast said to have been advised to be on the look-out for ambushes on their way to work.
And it emerged yesterday that Semtex formerly belonging to the Provisional IRA was used in the terror attack in Fermanagh at the weekend.
The explosive was smuggled into the whole of Ireland in huge quantities in the 1980s by the Provisionals as a gift from Colonel Muammar Gadaffi of Libya.
Mr Paisley Jnr called for an urgent inquiry into how dissidents got hold of the explosive and how many weapons they had in their armoury.
He added: "There are some crumbs of comfort that the weapons deployment has been botched, or else, more likely, dissidents have been infiltrated and at the last moment the explosives undermined and therefore lives saved.
"However, we cannot always rely upon infiltration and treachery within the ranks of the dissidents to undermine their activity."
The DUP’s Fermanagh and South Tyrone MLA, Arlene Foster, will meet top police officers next week to discuss the escalating dissident threat.
She said: “I have no doubt that failure of the police to embark on an intense campaign against these groups will eventually bring a fatality.
“It is paramount that serving police officers are given an appropriate level of security to deal with this heightened threat.”
The British government has always denied the security forces had a shoot-to-kill policy during the Troubles.
After four bombs exploded on the underground and No 30 bus in London in 2005, the Met launched Operation Kratos - codename for a secret shoot-to-kill policy on suicide killers which led to de Menezes’ death.
ENDS
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Monday 13 February 2012
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