It was a peaceful civil rights march. Why was a military regiment put there, armed to the teeth? Their presence was a provocation.
>>The Bloody Sunday Inquiry, also known as the Saville Inquiry or the Saville Report after its chairman, Lord Saville of Newdigate, was established in 1998 by British Prime Minister Tony Blair after campaigns for a second inquiry by families of those killed and injured in Derry on Bloody Sunday during the peak of ethno-political violence known as The Troubles. It was published 15 June 2010. The inquiry was set up to establish a definitive version of the events of Sunday 30 January 1972, superseding the tribunal set up under Lord Widgery that had reported on 19 April 1972,[1] 11 weeks after the events, and to resolve the accusations of a whitewash that had surrounded it.
The inquiry took the form of a tribunal established under the Tribunals of Inquiry (Evidence) Act 1921, and consisted of Lord Saville, the former Chief Justice of New Brunswick William L. Hoyt and John L. Toohey, a former Justice of the High Court of Australia.[2]
The judges retired on 23 November 2004,[3] and reconvened once again on 16 December to listen to testimony from another key witness, known as Witness X.[4]
The results were published on 15 June 2010. British Prime Minister David Cameron addressed the House of Commons that afternoon where he acknowledged, among other things, that the paratroopers had fired the first shot, had fired on fleeing unarmed civilians, and shot and killed one man who was already wounded.[5] He then apologised on behalf of the British Government.[6]
Conclusions
The report stated, "The firing by soldiers of 1 PARA on Bloody Sunday caused the deaths of 13 people and injury to a similar number, none of whom was posing a threat of causing death or serious injury,"[10] and also said, "The immediate responsibility for the deaths and injuries on Bloody Sunday lies with those members of Support Company whose unjustifiable firing was the cause of those deaths and injuries."[11] Saville stated that British paratroopers "lost control",[12] fatally shooting fleeing civilians and those who tried to aid the civilians who had been shot by the British soldiers.[13] The report stated that British soldiers had concocted lies in their attempt to hide their acts.[13] Saville stated that the civilians had not been warned by the British soldiers that they intended to shoot.[8] The report states, contrary to the previously established belief, that none of the soldiers fired in response to attacks by petrol bombers or stone throwers, and that the civilians were not posing any threat.[8]
Saville said British soldiers should not have been ordered to enter the Bogside area as "Colonel Wilford either deliberately disobeyed Brigadier MacLellan’s order or failed for no good reason to appreciate the clear limits on what he had been authorised to do".[14] The report stated five British soldiers aimed shots at civilians they knew did not pose a threat and two other British soldiers shot at civilians "in the belief that they might have identified gunmen, but without being certain that this was the case".[14]
The report found that Martin McGuinness,"did not engage in any activity that provided any of the soldiers with any justification for opening fire."
en.wikipedia.org |
