Sinn Fein MPs Arrive At Dail; Palestine Exiles in Eire Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit source - Jay Dooling News about Ireland & the Irish From the New Wires AP 05/23/02 21:23 Shooting Rioters/Rubber Bullets Maim & Kill PA 05/23/02 13:46 Irish Radio Names Palestine Militant Exiles PA 05/23/02 12:41 New Sinn Fein MPs Arrives At Irish Parliament ****************************************** Shooting Rioters AP 05/23/02 21:23 Copyright 2002 The Associated Press By EMMA ROSS AP Medical Writer LONDON (AP) -- Some types of rubber bullets used by police to restrain unruly protesters kill and maim too often to be considered a safe method of crowd control, new research concludes. Rubber-coated bullets are intended to inflict superficial painful injuries to deter rioters. But a study of their use by Israeli security forces has found police often fire from too close and aim poorly. Even when fired properly, it said, the bullets are so inaccurate that they can cause unintended injuries. The study, published this week in The Lancet medical journal, examined the effects of rubber-coated bullets used by the Israeli police force during riots by Israeli Arabs in northern and central Israel in early October 2000. Those bullets are in fact made of metal encased in a rubber shell, and are different from the original rubber bullets first used in 1970 by the British in Northern Ireland. The British rubber bullets were designed to be fired at the ground so that they would bounce up and hit the legs of demonstrators. Britain stopped using rubber bullets in Northern Ireland in 1975 in favor of shorter, less inaccurate plastic ones. Other variations of rubber bullets are used in several countries, including the United States. These include rubber-coated metal bullets, rubber plugs, plastic bullets called baton rounds, and beanbag rounds -- fabric beanbags about the size of a tea bag filled with lead pellets. Each type has a different effect on the human body under different circumstances. Mike McBride, editor of Jane's Police and Security Equipment, said the Israeli findings have no bearing on other types of crowd control ammunition. "There are lots of different manufacturers out there making lots of different types of riot control projectiles," McBride said. Baton rounds, or pure plastic bullets, are used in Northern Ireland today. They are lighter, faster and more accurate than their rubber predecessors, McBride said. "They've been used 166 times in Northern Ireland, twice in mainland Britain, and there have been no deaths associated with the use of those," he said. In the United States, local police make their own decisions on what to use for crowd control, and methods vary across the country. The study, conducted by doctors at the Rambam Medical Center at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa in northern Israel, involved 152 people who were admitted to hospitals in early October 2000 with a total of 201 wounds from rubber-coated bullets. Israel says it uses rubber bullets and tear gas as non-lethal methods of crowd control to reduce casualties. However, former police commander Alik Ron told a public hearing last September into the Arabi Israeli riots that police were not trained to use rubber bullets and sometimes shot from a short -- and lethal -- distance at rioters. In the study, the scientists documented for each patient which regions of the body were hit, whether the bullets penetrated the flesh, the severity of the injuries, surgeries that were needed and the final outcome. There were two types of rubber-coated bullets used during the riots. The first type, recommended for firing at the legs of a specific person from at least 131 feet away, is a blunt cylindrical missile composed of three metal cores coated in hard rubber shells. It is fired from a special canister that fits onto the muzzle of a gun. The bullet splits into three after it is shot. The other bullet type is composed of 15 tiny rubber-covered metal balls packed together into a cartridge. When fired from the recommended distance, they disperse to form a circle about 22 feet across. This type of bullet is recommended for use against groups of people. The researchers found the bullet injuries were randomly distributed all over the body. They were mostly in the limbs, but also frequently found in the head, neck, face and chest. Bullets that hit the legs caused the least damage, while those that hit the face usually caused the most harm, often permanent. "This type of inaccurate ammunition -- one missile that breaks into three components immediately after firing -- and the resulting ricochets evidently make it difficult or impossible to avoid severe injuries to vulnerable body regions such as the head, neck and upper torso," the study said. Nearly 60 percent of the bullet wounds were above the belly button, which suggests the police were not always aiming at the legs, the study said. The researchers determined from the pattern of wounds and bone fractures that bullets were also sometimes fired from close range. Almost half the injuries were mild, but 35 percent were considered moderately severe wounds and 19 percent were severe. Three people were blinded and one patient turned psychotic, the study said. Two people were killed after bullets went through the eyes and pierced the brain, the study found. Another patient died from a complication after surgery. ---- On the Net: http://thelancet.com ****************************************** Irish Radio Names Palestine Militant Exiles PA 05/23/02 13:46 Copyright 2002 PA News By Chris Parkin, PA News Two Palestinian militants, exiled as part of the deal to end the Israeli siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, were named in Dublin tonight, hours after reaching Ireland in a high- security operation. The pair were among 13 men being admitted to European Union states under terms that permitted the lifting of the 37-day-long church stand-off. All of the group were held in Cyprus before being transferred to their host countries. They were met at Dublin airport at around mid-day by police and taken tosecret destination. They will not be allowed to leave the Irish Republic, but can stay for as long as a year and their families will also be let in if requests are made by the men. The two remained officially unidentified. But tonight RTE, Ireland's state-backed broadcasting services, quoting Palestinian sources in the West Bank, named the men. They were said to be Jihad Jaara, 31, and Rami al-Kamel, 22, both from around Bethlehem, and members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction. One of them is understood to be a senior member of the group. According to the Israelis, Jaara has been involved in planning a number of recent suicide attacks and shootings in which several people died. His colleague in Ireland was said to have been one of the most dominant operatives in the Bethlehem area. Palestinian sources said only that the pair were leaders of the resistance against Israeli occupation. Tonight it was thought they were being kept in either a secure guest house or a small hotel. But for security reasons, the Irish authorities, were saying nothing about the day's top-secret operation. ****************************************** New Sinn Fein MPs Arrive At Irish Parliament PA 05/23/02 12:41 Copyright 2002 PA News By Chris Parkin, PA News Sinn Fein and the Green Party - two of the big winners in last week's Irish general election - formally arrived today at the headquarters of the Dublin parliament. Sinn Fein, which increased its parliamentary strength from just one member to five in the poll, had talks before making its entry with party leader Gerry Adams and other counterpart Westminister MPs. Their march into the Leinster House base of the Dail - highly significant for a movement that until recently snubbed the electoral process - was preceded by the Greens, when at least one of their six members of the house, up from two last time, turned up on a bicycle. Mr Adams meet Sinn Fein's officer board to discuss their approach to their new parliament ahead of a move into the parliament to officially sign the Dail's role of members. As today's developments went on, tentative contact about the formation of a new coalition government was going on between Prime Minister Bertie Ahern and his Fianna Fail party and deputy leader Mary Harney, head of the Progessive Democrats. Both parties also improved their strength in the Dail last week, and Ms Harney's followers yesterday gave her the go-ahead to negotiate a new partnership administration with Mr Ahern. With the destination of one seat in the 166-strong parliament - in Co Wicklow - still to be decided, the parties' standings were Fianna Fail 81, Fine Gael 31, Labour 21, Progressive Democrats 8, Greens 6, Sinn Fein 5, Others 13. Walking into the Dail today - almost two weeks in advance of the first meeting of the new Dail is set to pick the next Prime Minister, with Mr Ahern the only serious runner - both Sinn Fein and the Greens demanded changes to the house rules. They said reforms were necessary to recognise the electoral mandate of the smaller parties and independents. Sinn Fein's Caoimhghin O'Caolain, the sole member of his party in the previous parliament, disclosed that they were seeking an urgent meeting with government chief whip Seamus Brennan to press for urgent action. Green Party chairman John Gormley said change was needed to guarantee his group more speaking and private members' time and priority questions to ministers, warning that failure to make changes could lead to the Dail descending into chaos and very quickly becoming unmanageable. Mr Adams added the forecast: "We are going to see over the next years the redefinition of politics on this part of the island." And senior party colleague Martin Ferris, once jailed for IRA gun-running, but since last week the member for North Kerry, insisted: "I am very proud of my past." Fine Gael, the largest opposition party, whose parliamentary numbers collapsed last week and led to the resignation of leader Michae Noonan, will consider what to do next at a meeting in Dublin tomorrow. Jay Dooling (JayDooling@IrishAires.org) Irish Aires - 90.1FM KPFT in Houston http://IrishAires.org Irish Aires Email List http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Irish_Aires/emaillis.htm ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytire-05.25.02-00:57:26-4028