THE UNITED Campaign Against Plastic Bullets has called for a major campaign to demand the British government end the firing of plastic bullets.
Only in the North of Ireland are these lethal weapons used by the police. Whenever a disturbance breaks out in any other part of Britain the weapon is not used to quell the trouble.
Yet in the North of Ireland they are brought out for every oc. casion, including the slightest problem at a football game.
A group of human rights legal activists has pointed out that over 6,000 plastic bullets were officially fired by the security forces this past week; it is believed that the unofficial count is a lot higher. Mrs Reilly (UCAPB) said that the inadequate rules limiting in theory the use of the weapon are deing routinely and openly flouted, especially this past week.
•notec in local newsoabers. she said: "Dozens of people have been badly injured this week, sev. eral are critically ill in hospital. What we have seen is plastic bullets being fired at point blank range, and being routinely fired above waist height. All this is supposed to be against the rules of Name Address Post Code Tel.
-engagement and yet not a word is said against it." What was noted by many for. eign journalists, but left unsaid by British newspaper reporters, was that almost all the plastic bullets were used against nationalists. Using RUC figures, 163 plastic bullets were fired at loyalist protesters, and the rest reserved for the nationalists. The RUC admitted firing over 900 bullets at na. tionalists in Derry on one night. The injury count in the Derry hospital is a long one. Lewis Creme was shot in the arm and then in the iaw: the non. lethal weapon shattered his jaw and ripped off his ear. Michael Smith was shot in the head. He remains in intensive care with a fractured skull and broken ribs. John Travers was shot twice; once in the knee and once in the side. In one night in Derry 41 people were kept in hospital for plastic bullet wounds. Thankfully nobody has been killed, though some victims remain in a critical condition. Socialists in Britain should demand that this version of the turkey shoot be banned by a future Labour government. Socialist Outlook and International Viewpoint can be yours for the next year at a special dicount price. IV is the hard-hitting monthly review of the Fourth International, the world socialist organisation.
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