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| July/Iúil 2010
www.anphoblacht.com
BLOODY SUNDAY – 38 YEARS WAITING FOR TRUTH AND JUSTICE
British Prime Minister ‘deeply sorry’ “I AM deeply patriotic,” British Prime Minister David Cameron told a hushed House of Commons after the publication of the Saville Inquiry Report. “I never want to believe anything bad about our country. I never want to call into question the behaviour of our soldiers and our army. But the conclusions of this report are absolutely clear. “There is no doubt, there is nothing equivocal, there are no ambiguities. What happened on Bloody Sunday was both unjustified and unjustifiable. It was wrong.” In the British House of Commons the silence was palpable. Amongst the MPs there were those who had planned to complain about the cost and question the wisdom of holding another inquiry but suddenly anything other than contrition was inappropriate. For the people of Derry, who had gathered to support the families of the victims and watching David Cameron deliver his statement on a giant television screen erected in Guildhall Square, there was the realisation that a milestone had, indeed, been reached and even a British Prime Minister, a Conservative administration, was not going to deny the moment. Cameron listed a whole litany of crimes carried out by paratroopers:= Firing the first shot; = Shooting without warning; = Shooting unarmed civilians; = Shooting people as they fled, as they lay dying, as they tried to assist the injured and dying, or as they waved a white handkerchief as a signal of their peaceful intent; = And, after the shooting stopped, telling lies to cover up those crimes.
5 Families on their way to the Guildhall
Those who opened fire had no justification and those who were injured and killed posed no threat “or indeed was doing anything else that could, on any view, justified in shooting”. “These are shocking conclusions to read and shocking words to have to say. But you do not defend the British Army by defending the indefensible. There is no point in trying to soften or equivocate what is in this report. It is clear from the tribunal’s authoritative conclusions that the events of Bloody Sunday were in no way justified,” said Cameron. “For someone of my generation, Bloody Sunday and the early 1970s are something we feel we have learnt about rather than lived through. But what happened should never, ever have happened. The families of those who died should not have had to live with the pain and the hurt of that day and with a lifetime of loss. “Some members of our armed forces acted wrongly. The Government is ultimately responsible for the conduct of the armed forces and for that, on behalf of the Government, indeed, on behalf of our country, I am deeply sorry.”
5 Listening in Derry’s Guildhall Square to British Prime Minister David Cameron’s apology
SAVILLE’S KEY FINDINGS
= British paratroopers were responsible for all those killed and injured in Derry on January 30th 1972.
= The soldiers opened fire without any justification and failed to issue any prior warnings. Soldiers had their weapons cocked in contravention of guidelines. In at least one shooting, illegal ‘dum-dum’ bullets were used by the British Army. = None of those killed or injured was posing any threat of causing death or serious injury when they were shot.
= Soldiers did not fire in response to attacks or threatened attacks by nail or petrol bombs at soldiers.
= Some of the victims had been shot in the back as they attempted to flee, one was shot as he way crawling away, another as he lay mortally wounded, a father as he attempted to attend his dying son. = Soldiers knowingly put forward false accounts of the circumstances and their actions during the shootings, both in their initial statements and to the inquiry. = No blame was placed on the Civil Rights Association, the organisers of the march.
5Tearing up the Widgery Report
POLITICAL REACTION THE Saville Report has condemned Widgery to the dustbin of history, said Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams, speaking from Derry shortly after the report was released. “Today is a day for the families of those killed and those injured on Bloody Sunday. They have campaigned for 38 years for the truth and for justice. They have campaigned for the British Government to end their policy of cover-up and concealment,” said Adams. ”The facts of what happened on Bloody Sunday are clear: the British Paras came to Derry and murdered 14 civil rights marchers and injured 13 others. They were unarmed, they posed no threat and
they were completely innocent.” The Sinn Féin leader added: ”Today, Saville has put the lies of Widgery into the dustbin of history and with it the cover-up which was authorised of the highest levels within the British Establishment and lasted for almost four decades.” Martin McGuinness described the day as “a watershed for Derry, a day of extraordinary historic significance and one which the families have been vindicated. It is also a momentous day for truth.” While leading Sinn Féin figures had travelled to Derry to await the publication of the report, the SDLP chose to travel to London. Mark