Around 200 people turned up at a public meeting in Crossmaglen in south Armagh last night to give their views on the RUC to two members of the Independent Commission on Policing. The two commission members, Sir John Smith, the former deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, and Mr Peter Smyth, a QC in the North, attended the meeting in the Crossmaglen Rangers GAA Club. The commissioners were invited to the informal meeting by the South Armagh Farmers' and Residents' Committee. The chairman of the commission, Mr Chris Patten, did not attend - the commission will hold an official hearing in Crossmaglen next month.
There was a strong turnout of Sinn Fein supporters at the meeting. No dissident republicans were present. Members of the 32-County Sovereignty Movement dismissed the meeting as a PR exercise and said that attending would have given credibility to the Patten Commission.
Many at last night's meeting held strong views. There was applause when one man said: "Changing the name of the RUC would make no more difference than changing the name of the UVF."
Ms Imelda McDonnell, from Dromintee, said her family had been harassed by the RUC for 17 years. She claimed officers searching her home had read her diary and displayed her underwear. They were "thugs with guns".
She said RUC men regularly made "snide and sexual comments to her" and claimed to have been assaulted while in police custody. "The RUC has brought nothing but pain, anger and heartache to my family," she said, before breaking down in tears.
Ms Catherine Murphy, from Camlough, who is married to a local Sinn Fein representative, said police had once made her stand in the rain for a long period when she was pregnant. She claimed one officer told her they were taking bets as to what she would name her baby. The prize for the winner would be "to wipe out her happy wee family", she alleged.
A Newry solicitor, Mr Gerard Traynor, said people in south Armagh had no confidence in the RUC and were reluctant to involve the force even in incidents of domestic violence and road traffic accidents. He said there was little ordinary crime in the area and a rule of law was enforced by the IRA. That might cause some people concern, but it was reality, he said.
He said there must be "root-and-branch" changes to policing - otherwise "this commission will be the rock on which the whole peace process founders".
Another solicitor, Ms Rosemary Nelson, from Lurgan, claimed RUC officers had said she was a paramilitary member, had made death threats against her, and had once assaulted her. She said she was harassed because of the cases she took up, which included representing Garvaghy Road residents.