FAMILIES bereaved through the use of plastic and rubber bullets have issued a renewed call for the lethal weapon to be banned.
The United Campaign Against Plastic Bullets (UCAPB) held a demonstration at Stormont on Sunday when they called for a ban on the deadly projectiles.
In September, the group wrote to Justice Minister, Naomi Long, PSNI Chief Constable, Simon Byrne, and Policing Board Chair, Doug Garrett, in a bid to have plastic and rubber bullets banned.
Seventeen people, including eight children, were killed and countless people maimed by plastic bullets during the Troubles.
Mark Kelly, whose sister Carol Ann Kelly (12) was amongst those killed, said: "Carol Ann was 12 years of age when she was shot behind the left ear by a plastic bullet and killed.
"I was standing right beside her when it happened.
"When you lose a member of your family it's bad enough, but when you're denied any kind of justice it just makes it a million times more difficult.
"At the time a lot of the press printed stuff saying that there was rioting and she was carrying petrol bombs and there was masked men on the road, because they took a lot of their press briefings from the army and the RUC. They never really spoke to the families."
He added: "There was an inquest into Carol Ann's death but it was just a shambles, it has been a shambles for most families, and there are families still fighting for a new inquest to this day."
"My mum lived for 30 years with no justice whatsoever," he continued. "It's really hard and difficult for the families to accept the loss and the lack of prosecutions.
"What we're really trying to push for is for these bullets to be banned. There's no reason for these bullets to be on the streets. Somebody else will be killed with them."
In 2005, the British government approved the use of new form of plastic bullet known as an Attenuating Energy Projectile (AEP). The deadly plastic bullet was most recently used in West Belfast in April during disturbances over the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Mr Kelly said the continued used of plastic bullets makes him "feel sick"
"I have a real fear of another child being killed," he said.
"We're not one side or the other. The organisation is called the United Campaign Against Plastic Bullets because these bullets have affected everyone in Northern Ireland. If a child is killed their religion doesn't matter, their colour doesn't matter, it doesn't matter – they're just another child."
Mr Kelly also criticised the attempts by the state to sanitise the use of plastic bullets, or so-called AEPs.
"When you go back to the start of the Troubles they were saying rubber bullets were non-lethal," he stated.
"They then changed them to plastic baton rounds or plastic bullets as they're called. Now they've changed the name of them to AEPs. You can change the name, but if you're firing bullets that can do the same damage then they shouldn't be fired."
