No plastic bullets training for new NI police recruits

Fresh recruits to Northern Ireland’s new police force will not be trained to use plastic bullets, it has emerged.

The move is reportedly part of the package of proposals being drawn up by the British and Irish Governments in a bid to break the deadlocked peace process.

An RUC spokesman confirmed that the first batch to begin training in the Police Service of Northern Ireland this autumn will not be instructed in using the controversial riot-control weapon.

He said: ‘‘They will receive firearms training but they will not receive baton round training ...’’

But he insisted only seasoned officers would be deployed in serious civil disorder, and added: ‘‘The people who would be trained would be members of the Mobile Support Unit who are front line in riot situations.’’

According to RUC figures, about 1,600 officers were trained to use baton rounds last year, and that figure has dropped to some 500 this year.

Nationalists have fought a long campaign to have plastic bullets banned, citing several fatal shootings of innocent victims over the course of the Troubles.

Their anger erupted again when a new baton round was introduced last month.

The British Government claimed it was more accurate, but relatives of those wounded insisted it was a more deadly weapon.

Reports suggest the block on new recruits gaining experience in the weapon will be highlighted in the package to be presented by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to the political parties before the end of the month.

The ‘‘take it or leave it’’ proposals aimed at solving the impasse over IRA weapons, policing in the North and a scaling down of the military presence will spell out a determination to finding another method of riot control, it has been suggested.

A senior RUC source said officers were confident the move would be included in the plans.

But Sinn Fein policing spokesman Gerry Kelly gave a frosty response to the plans.

The Northern Ireland Assembly member for North Belfast said: ‘‘The difficulty is that if this is true it obviously doesn’t mean plastic bullets are not going to be used.

‘‘What they need is an alternative to plastic bullets.’’