by Tristan Simoneau
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe
Photo: British soldier dragging a Catholic protester during Bloody Sunday.
DERRY, Ireland – On June 15th the British government released a report into the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre, placing the blame on British soldiers who killed 14 people in Northern Ireland that day. The report investigated the mass killing of members of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association by members of the Parachute Regiment during a march in Derry on January 30th, 1972. It found that the British soldiers who went to the location where the march was taking place did so as a result of an order which should not have been given by their commander. The inquiry concluded “on balance” that the first shot in the vicinity of the march was fired by British soldiers.
According to the report, none of the casualties was carrying a firearm and even though there was some shooting by IRA paramilitaries, “none of this firing provided any justification for the shooting of the civilian casualties.” The first deputy minister in the Northern Ireland Assembly, Martin McGuinness, was present at the IRA rally, armed with a Thompson submachine gun, but the inquiry could not prove whether he fired his weapon. The British regiment reacted to the provocation by “losing their self control…forgetting or ignoring their instructions and training.” This resulted in a “serious and widespread loss of fire discipline.” The report states that some of those who were killed or injured were clearly fleeing from the British paratroopers or going to the assistance of others who were dying. After the incident, many of the British soldiers involved “knowingly put forward false accounts in order to seek to justify their firing.”
The Bloody Sunday inquiry was ordered by Tony Blair in 1998 and was expected to take two years to complete. ₤191 million and twelve years later the Saville report was finally completed. The inquiry sat at the Guildhall in Derry and Central Hall at Westminster in London to accommodate military witnesses. In total about 2,500 people gave testimony, with 922 of these called to give oral evidence, including 505 civilians, nine experts and forensic scientists, 49 journalists, 245 military, 35 paramilitaries, 39 politicians and civil servants, seven priests and 33 Royal Ulster Constabulary officers. Evidence amounted to 160 volumes of data with an estimated 30 million words, 13 volumes of photographs, 121 audio tapes and 10 video tapes.
Lawyers for Bloody Sunday families are planning to press for those soldiers who opened fire, to be prosecuted for murder. However, the Inquiry Chairmen, Lord Saville, has resisted pressure to declare that the victims had been unlawfully killed.
For more information, please see:
CNN World — Bloody Sunday report blames british soldiers – 15 June 2010
The Daily Telegraph — Bloody Sunday Inquiry: Cameron apologises as Saville says shootings ‘unjustified’ – 15 June 2010
The Irish Times — Saville rules Bloody Sunday killings were ‘unjustifiable’ – 15 June 2010