NI: Northern Ireland - in brief (2)
01 March 2000
RUC receives George Cross: In April the English queen, Elizabeth II, conferred the George Cross, which is awarded for valour, to the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) in a ceremony at Hillsborough, Co Down. She told the Northern Ireland paramilitary police force that the award was due to their "bravery and dedication" and expressed her confidence that they would "maintain the sense of duty and dedication that is being honoured today." The award comes at a time when evidence of RUC collusion in the assassinations of civil rights lawyers' Rosemary Nelson and Pat Finucane has prompted world-wide demands for an independent inquiry into the sectarian police force. It also coincided with a case brought before the European Court of Human Rights alleging that the RUC practised a shoot to kill policy that had, said lawyer Seamus Treacy, "resulted in the deaths of hundreds of civilians, overwhelmingly and disproportionately Catholic, by forces of the state." He told the court "...the UK government has violated both substantively and procedurally the most fundamental provision of the human rights convention, the right to life."