Europe and Central Asia Summary of Amnesty International’s Concerns in the Region, January-June 2007 two civilians, Mahir Jasim Ghodhban and Ali Salam ‘Abdul Hassan al-Rukabi. In the police report no details were given as to the exact place and manner in which Ali Salam ‘Abdul Hassan al-Rukabi and the other victims were killed. In light of these allegations, AI requested clarification from the UK authorities regarding the killing of Ali Salam ‘Abdul Hassan al-Rukabi, Mahmoud Ahmad Wahib and Mahir Jasim Ghodhban, including whether an investigation into the circumstances surrounding their deaths had been initiated by relevant UK authorities in Basra. AI called on the UK authorities to ensure that a civilian-led mechanism investigate these allegations. Killings by, or with the alleged collusion of, the UK security forces in Northern Ireland (update to AI Index: EUR 01/001/2007) of the Northern Irish police force until November 2001, when it was renamed the Police Service of Northern Ireland, PSNI), and subsequently of the PSNI. Among the most serious concerns emerging from Operation Ballast were:  a series of instances when RUC Special Branch officers took steps to ensure that police informants who had committed a crime were protected from other police officers investigating those crimes, including “babysitting” informants through interviews to help them avoid incriminating themselves;  instances, prior to 2003, when some RUC/PSNI Special Branch officers facilitated the continued engagement of informants in paramilitary activity, including, in some cases, involvement in murder;  misleading information was prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and vital intelligence likely to have assisted in the investigation of serious crimes, including murder, was withheld from police investigation teams;  legally authorized systems for the handling of informants, used elsewhere in the UK, were not used by RUC Special Branch. Moreover, rules introduced by the RUC in 1997 for informant handling were set aside: “A decision was made by chief officers that those rules should not apply to Special Branch”. The decision not to adopt these rules meant that it was not possible to attribute responsibility to individual officers for actual breach of rules;  police practices had significantly changed since 2003, and, as a result of a major review, 12 per cent of police informers had their relationship with PSNI terminated because they were involved in serious crime. OPONI recommended investigating those informants suspected of serious crimes. While Operation Ballast In January, the Office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland (OPONI) published a report of an extensive investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Raymond McCord Junior in 1997. The report provided a summary of the investigation, known as “Operation Ballast”. While the inquiry had begun as an investigation into allegations of collusion between police officers and loyalist paramilitaries in the murder of a single individual, Raymond McCord Junior, it led OPONI to consider the murders of 10 people and 72 instances of other crimes, including: 10 attempted murders; 10 “punishment” shootings; 13 “punishment” attacks; and a bomb attack. Many of the findings gave rise to concerns about current serving officers and practices. The investigation disclosed institutionalized and systemic collusion between the police and loyalist paramilitaries as recently as 2003. It found that the involvement of some junior officers could not have occurred as it did without the knowledge and support of the highest levels of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC, the name Amnesty International 139 AI Index: EUR 01/010/2007