Sir, - I am surprised by the negative tone of your Editorial of April 20th on the related issues of policing, decommissioning and prisoners. You suggest that the RUC should not be disbanded, the IRA should surrender all its weapons and (some) prisoners should not be released.
Is so doing you are ignoring the origin of the past 30 years of conflict. There were virtually no IRA weapons in 1969 when the RUC killed some of the first victims of the troubles and (at best) stood by while unionist mobs burned thousands of nationalists out of their homes. Recent revelations about the killing of Pat Finucane and Robert Hamill show that not much has changed. Not one RUC member ever served a day in jail for any of these killings or the killing of many other innocents like Nora McCabe and Julie Livingstone, who were shot dead by RUC plastic bullets. Two of only four British soldiers who were convicted of murder were released and promoted back into the British Army after only two years (and a campaign to similarly release the other two is being backed by senior figures in the British establishment). Surely Irish republican (and loyalist) prisoners, most of whom have served much longer for lesser offences should be treated equally.
The fact that the then IRA leadership had decommissioned its weapons allowed the killing and burning in 1969 and sowed the seeds of bitter conflict. Unfortunately, the potential for a repeat of that pogrom existed (and still exists) around the highly volatile time of Drumcree. If that happens, will the Irish Army come to the aid of the victims this time? If not, you cannot seriously expect the IRA to leave the nationalist community defenceless once again. - Yours, etc.,
Sean Marlow
Willow Park Road, Dublin 11.