The RUC Chief Constable, Mr Ronnie Flanagan, said last night that a completely distorted representation of his stance on Orange parades had been given in newspaper reports of comments he had made in an interview.
Mr Flanagan issued a statement after being quoted as saying that he would allow the contentious July 5th parade down the nationalist Garvaghy Road in Portadown if large numbers of loyalist protesters gathered at Drumcree and threatened violence. He was alleged to have made the remarks during an interview with a US film-maker two months ago.
"Highly selected [sic] short excerpts of comments attributed to me give, when taken out of context, as they have been, a completely distorted representation of both my stance on the parades issue and the reality of provisions now in place under legislation", Mr Flanagan said.
"The position is straightforward, and let me be unequivocal. The Independent Parades Commission have the lawful responsibility to make decisions in respect of contentious parades. I am absolutely determined that their decisions will be enforced on the ground. Neither marchers, nor those who would seek either to support or oppose marches, should have any doubt whatever about that."
The interview with Mr Flanagan was conducted on April 7th by an American independent filmmaker, Ms T.L. Thousand, who is making a documentary on Northern Ireland.
In the interview transcript supplied to journalists by representatives of the Garvaghy residents Ms Thousand asks: "So, if the Parades Commission rules against the Orange Order with respect to marching down Garvaghy Road, and if the Spirit of Drumcree masses thousands there again, threatening to use - as they have said on record they would - whatever means necessary to force the march down, will the RUC let them through?" In the transcript, Mr Flanagan is recorded as having replied: "Absolutely."
Ms Thousand told The Irish Times yesterday that Mr Flanagan had agreed to her request for an interview at RUC headquarters in early April. She said she gave a commitment to all those she interviewed that their words would not be taken out of context. The transcript of the interview contained Mr Flanagan's remarks in relation to the Garvaghy Road parade and the Parades Commission in their entirety and his comments were not being taken out of context, she said.
Asked whether there had been more to Mr Flanagan's response than the word "absolutely", which comes at the end of her transcript, Ms Thousand said that the interview ended at that point because her tape-recorder ran out of tape.
Initially, she said, she gave only a "summation" of the Chief Constable's remarks to Mr Brendan Mac Cionnaith, spokesman for the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition, in order for him to respond to them in her documentary. But she later told The Irish Times that she had given Mr Mac Cionnaith a full transcript of the interview, before a meeting in Dublin between the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and representatives of the Garvaghy Road residents. Mr Ahern was also given a copy of the transcript, she said.
Mr Mac Cionnaith said that Mr Flanagan's remarks suggested that he would ignore the legislation covering the operation of the Parades Commission and "cave in to the threats being made by the Orange Order".
Mr Joel Patten, spokesman for the Spirit of Drumcree group, described the comments of Mr Flanagan as "remarkable". Speaking on UTV last night, he said he would be pleased if the Garvaghy Road parade was given the green light, but stressed that the threat of violence should not be the criteria used in making decisions on this and other parades.