New recruits will not be trained in use of plastic bullets

Fresh recruits to the Police Service of Northern Ireland will not be trained in the use of plastic bullets.

The move is purported to be part of the package the British and Irish Governments have drawn up into attempt to break the deadlock in the political process.

An RUC spokesman confirmed the decision and said: "They will receive firearms training but they will not receive baton round training."

However, he said only seasoned officers would be deployed in serious civil disorder: "The people who would be trained would be members of the mobile support unit who are front line in riot situations.”

Last week, the Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble, called on Northern Ireland Human Rights Commissioner Brice Dickson to resign over the issue. It followed a statement from Mr Dickson that the RUC should ban the use of plastic bullets to control riots.

In the House of Commons, the East Antrim MP Roy Beggs called Professor Dickson "a naive do-gooder" and also said he should resign.

The dispute over the use of plastic bullets intensified after the RUC Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan rejected a call from the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission urging him to declare that he would no longer deploy baton rounds for crowd control. Professor Dickson said Sir Ronnie should follow the example of his counterparts in England who had resisted the use of plastic bullets during recent disturbances.

Professor Dickson made the call after the commission again considered the new plastic bullet round made available to the RUC on 1 June. (AMcE)