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Call for prosecutions as Bloody Sunday report is published

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, June 15, IRNA -- Britain’s longest and most expensive public inquiry into the killing of 14 unarmed civil rights demonstrators in Northern Ireland was being published Tuesday with calls for the prosecution of those responsible.

Ivan Cooper, leader of the 1972 march in Londonderry that turned the course of history in Northern Ireland, said that General Robert Ford, the former British commander of land forces, should be prosecuted over the Bloody Sunday killings.

“He should be arrested and tried because he commanded the Paras that day. The buck should stop with him,” said Cooper, who was an SDLP nationalist MP at the time campaigning for equal rights for the minority Catholic community.

“People at the top should be accountable for these killings and that means the military commanders who were in charge of those soldiers,” he said.

The report is the third into 27 civil rights protesters shot by the British Army Parachute Regiment. Thirteen men, seven of whom were teenagers, died immediately, while the death of another man months later has been attributed to the injuries he received.

"The people have waited and prayed for this day for 38 years. I hope they are all declared innocent which is exactly what they were,” the civil rights campaigner said.

“I saw with my own eyes on that day innocent people being shot dead and those who were in command of the soldiers who fired those shots should be accountable," he told the Guardian ahead of the publication.

The latest inquiry held under the auspices of former High Court judge, Lord Saville, and which cost £195 million, was ordered by former prime minister Tony Blair following the signing of the Good Friday peace agreement in 1998.

It comes after two previous investigations held by the British Government largely cleared the soldiers and British authorities of blame.

Asked if he thought it was right to try and possibly jail military commanders who were now retired, Cooper said: "They jail priests in Ireland who are in their 80s for abuse."

The shootings were among the most controversial state killings in the Northern Ireland conflict and lead to more than 25 years of violent conflict, including the IRA resuming its armed campaign against British rule.

Kay Duddy, whose brother Jackie was the first person to be shot on Bloody Sunday, said the families had waited so long for the 12-year investigation.

When launching the latest investigation, Blair told parliament that the aim was "to close this painful chapter once and for all".

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End News / IRNA / News Code 1179680