President Clinton will have to ensure that RUC officers selected for FBI training courses have not committed human rights abuses, according to a new law about to be adopted by the US Congress.
Members of Congress critical of the RUC for past abuses have insisted on strict criteria to be applied in future training of RUC officers by the FBI.
Under the Bill, almost certain to be adopted as part of a final budget package, no funding will be allowed for the courses unless the president can certify that the RUC officers played no role in the murder of two Northern Ireland lawyers, Rosemary Nelson and Patrick Finucane.
The president will also have to certify that RUC members receiving training have not "committed or condoned violations of internationally recognised human rights", including "other violence or serious threat of violence against defence attorneys in Northern Ireland".
Another condition which will have to be satisfied is that the British and Irish governments "are committed to assisting in the full implementation of the recommendations contained in the Patten Commission report". The chairman of the House International Relations Committee, Mr Ben Gilman, who played a leading part in putting restrictions on FBI links with the RUC, said yesterday that "the vetting of Northern Ireland police officers that this Bill requires for past human rights abuses before they are eligible for any US federal police training points up one of the major flaws in the Patten Commission report."
Mr Gilman, who is also a joint chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on Irish Affairs, said the vetting by the president "hopefully will serve as a model for even further changes in Northern Ireland which can help build support for the new police service that the Patten report envisioned and that I and others in Congress fully support."
When Mr Chris Patten testified recently on Capitol Hill, members of Congress criticised the absence from his report of any vetting for "bad apples" among existing RUC officers. The new Bill can be seen as an attempt to remedy this where co-operation with the FBI is concerned.
The FBI and the RUC will not be happy with the new restrictions. Previously, the two forces organised training in the US free of any funding restrictions by Congress. The British government is believed to have lobbied against the measures.