Blair urged to scale down army presence
The British government was today urged by nationalists to press ahead with plans to scale down the British Army presence along the border.
SDLP Assembly member Dominic Bradley asked why there had not been more movement on demilitarisation and an end to the practice of British Army back up for police.
After a meeting between his party and Northern Ireland Office security minister Jane Kennedy, the Newry and Armagh MLA said: “Tony Blair has gone on record to say that there is no sense that the security situation is deteriorating. So why can’t we have more demilitarisation?
“People in south Armagh and elsewhere should not have to live with helicopter overflights and constant intrusive surveillance. It serves no real security purpose. It is not necessary. It is time for it to go.”
Nationalists have urged the British government to honour pledges it made on the scaling down of the Army presence in the Good Friday Agreement and the joint declaration it issued with the Irish Government last year.
Both the SDLP and Sinn Féin have claimed the failure to implement those commitments has undermined the peace process.
Mr Bradley said today his party had also told the minister that Army back up for the police was “totally incompatible” with the new community policing they were trying to achieve.
SDLP chairman Alex Attwood said the SDLP had also pressed for a renewal of the 50-50 quota for Protestant and Catholic police recruits which, he said, was making the PSNI more representative of the community that its predecessor, the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
The West Belfast MLA said: “At a time when unionist parties and the Alliance are attacking 50-50 recruitment and pushing for it to be scrapped, the SDLP is clear that it must be renewed.
“50-50 recruitment is essential to the new beginning. It must stay”
The SDLP delegation, which also included Upper Bann MLA Dolores Kelly, said it had also pressed the British government to release retired Canadian judge Peter Cory’s reports on four controversial murders in Northern Ireland and to order inquiries.
They also raised loyalist violence and intimidation with the minister and the problem of organised crime.
