THE decision to allow the Orange march at Drumcree "damaged the RUC's reputation as an impartial police force", according to a US government report on human rights to be published today.
The comments on events in Northern Ireland are part of the annual report on human rights around the world compiled by the State Department. Parts of the report were sent to Capitol Hill yesterday on a confidential basis.
Under the heading "Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association", the report says the "marching season" in Northern Ireland "posed special problems" for the government as the 100,000 members of the Orange Order and similar Protestant organisations paraded "to celebrate their history and cultural identity".
Referring to Drumcree, the report says: "Many observers on both sides of the community perceived the government's reversal in the face of unlawful unionist, protests as a victory of might over the rule of law, and the incidents damaged the RUC's reputation as an impartial police force."
Under the heading "Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment", the report says the United Nations Committee Against Torture, and many human rights groups, "have raised concerns about mistreatment of detainees in Northern Ireland where suspects arrested under emergency legislation are interrogated in special holding centres".
There had also long been accusations that security force members in Northern Ireland "harass citizens, particularly young people in areas where support for terrorists is considered strong". However, "the government strongly denies that such behaviour is widespread or officially tolerated".
The report is also critical of the use of plastic bullets in crowd control by the security forces in Northern Ireland, a practice "widely criticised by human rights monitors and the UN Committee Against Torture". It says, "the number of plastic rounds fired this year [1996] surpasses all but one prior year."
The report also documents IRA bombings during the past year. Also recorded is an increase in the number of "punishment" attacks by republican and loyalist "terrorists". The report says while loyalists often "target members of their terrorist cells", the republicans "more frequently extend their vigilante activities to the broader Catholic community, punishing `anti social' activities such as drug trafficking and car theft".
Under the heading of treatment of "religious minorities", the report says: "Despite government efforts, the unemployment rate for Catholic men in Northern Ireland remained twice that for Protestant men."
While active recruitment of Catholics by the Northern Ireland civil service has "produced rough proportionality in overall numbers, the service has acknowledged that Catholics remain significantly under represented in its senior grades".
The report also notes that efforts to recruit Catholics into the RUC have been "hampered by IRA assassinations and death. threats" and the numbers joining have fallen since the end of the IRA ceasefire.