BETWEEN 1978 and 1982, some 22,000 people were arrested and questioned at the Castlereagh Interrogation Centre in Northern Ireland, and hundreds were brutally beaten, a conference on reconciliation was told at the weekend.
The West Belfast MP, Dr Joe Hendron of the SDLP, said he had visited the centre on numerous occasions and had gained first hand knowledge of what went on there.
The RUC, he said, had learned during those years to become expert on how to inflict pain without leaving bruise marks, and the confrontation on the streets between the force and young people, who were often questioned several times a day in an insulting and provocative way, was one of the realities of life in Belfast.
Addressing the Bandon Encounter Group conference on reconciliation, which was attended by senior unionist politicians, Dr Hendron said that although hundreds of people had accepted out of court settlements after beatings by the RUC, no officer had been indicted and sentenced to prison.
That fact was what shaped the view of the nationalist community regarding the force. That was also why there would have to be fundamental changes in the future RUC.
Dr Hendron said that while he could appreciate the suffering of the RUC over the past 25 years, it did not follow that all was, well within the force. "The point is that we have been divided by history, therefore policing in a divided community is fraught with difficulties. The nationalist community has suffered under repressive legislation, and of the 22,000 people arrested during the period of which I speak, the vast majority were released without charge.
"It is difficult for people who were arrested, provoked and harassed by police to have respect for law and order.
"The main reason why people joined the paramilitary organisations was the confrontation that took place all too often on the streets of Belfast. I fully accept that's what the paramilitaries wanted, but the law applies to all and should be seen to do so.
Mr Ken Maginnis, Ulster Unionist MP, said the legislation under which the RUC operated was very often misunderstood, particularly the provision for seven day detention. While that legislation had been criticised in the Republic, the same jurisdiction was now proposing a similar measure to deal with the drugs menace. If it could be justified in the Republic, how much more justified was it in the Northern Ireland context?
The reduction in tension would lead to a cut of up to 6,000 people in the RUC, he said, and the force would require a great deal of sympathetic understanding. While there had been mistakes in the past, by and large the RUC had behaved in an exemplary manner, he said.