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Cameron Says 1972 N. Ireland Killings Were ‘Unjustified’
By JOHN F. BURNS
LONDON — Prime Minister David Cameron offered an extraordinary apology on Tuesday for the 1972 killings of 14 unarmed demonstrators by British soldiers in Northern Ireland, saying that a long-awaited judicial inquiry had left no doubt that the “Bloody Sunday” shootings were “both unjustified and unjustifiable.”
“What happened should never, ever have happened,” Mr. Cameron said before the House of Commons. “The families of those who died should not have had to live with the pain and hurt of that day, and 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 — and indeed our country — I am deeply sorry.”
While the inquiry seemed to settle the issue of responsibility for the killings, the government in London will still have to tackle the difficult question of whether any of the soldiers involved, or their commanders, should face criminal prosecution.
The publication of the 5,000-page report plunged Mr. Cameron, in office barely a month, into the heart of Northern Ireland’s still-volatile sectarian politics. Like his predecessors as prime minister going back decades, Mr. Cameron had to tread a wary path for fear of reigniting tensions among Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, who have suffered nearly 40 years of bitter dispute over events in the city of Londonderry on Jan. 30, 1972.
On that day, a crowd of about 10,000 gathered to protest the practice of detention without trial, used frequently by the British authorities to curb suspected paramilitary extremists. The outburst of violence effectively ended a nonviolent campaign for civil rights and led to the three decades of sectarian strife that became known as the Troubles, which claimed more than 3,600 lives.
Within weeks of the shootings, another Conservative prime minister, Edward Heath, suspended the parliament in Belfast and imposed direct British rule, which lasted until the Good Friday pact ushered in the new era of power-sharing in Belfast.
The previous British government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown had delayed publication of the report until after the May 6 general election, fearing that the findings might stir political passions during the campaign and undermine the power-sharing government established in Belfast under the 1998 Good Friday agreement. One of the co-leaders of that government, Martin McGuinness, was present at the site of the 1972 killings as an Irish Republican Army commander.
Mr. Cameron chose not to equivocate on the central issue of whether the troops of Britain’s crack parachute regiment had any justification for opening fire with high-powered combat rifles on demonstrators protesting the deployment of heavily armed troops in Catholic areas.
Instead, he effectively endorsed almost every contention that the victims’ families had made over the decades: that the British commander should not have ordered the troops to open fire; that the army fired the first shots; that no warning was given before the army fusillade began; and that “none of the casualties” was carrying a firearm.
In addition, Mr. Cameron quoted approvingly from sections in which the inquiry’s director, Lord Saville, 74, concluded that although there was “some firing” by republican paramilitaries mixed in with the protesters, “none of this firing provided any justification for the shooting of civilian casualties,” and that none of the soldiers fired “in response to attack or threatened attacks by nail or petrol bombers,” as the soldiers and their lawyers had maintained.
Rather, the soldiers reacted to perceived threats from the protesters by “losing their self-control,” “forgetting or ignoring their instructions and training” and with a “serious and widespread loss of fire discipline,” the report said. Perhaps most damagingly, the document described one of the victims having been shot while “crawling away” from the soldiers, another “while he was lying mortally wounded on the ground.”
Mr. Cameron, calling sections of the report “shocking,” said: “You do not defend the British Army by defending the indefensible. We do not honor all those who have served with distinction in keeping the peace and upholding the rule of law in Northern Ireland by hiding from the truth.”
On the role of Mr. McGuinness, a point of particular volatility, the inquiry concluded that although he was present and probably armed with a “submachine gun,” he did not “engage in any activity that provided any of the soldiers with any justification for opening fire.” Allegations to the contrary have fed years of vilification of Mr. McGuinness by Protestant politicians.
The Londonderry shootings have been angrily contested since the day they transpired, and especially after a report completed within weeks by a top British judge, Lord Widgery, that effectively exonerated the troops.
The inquiry was commissioned by Tony Blair, then prime minister, as part of the negotiations that brought about the Good Friday pact, and broke records for the 12 years it took to complete, the nearly 1,400 witnesses who gave evidence and the cost: $280 million. More than half of the money — government funds — went to the lawyers involved, two of whom earned nearly $6 million each.
In Londonderry, thousands of people gathered at the shooting site and applauded as Mr. Cameron’s speech was broadcast live on giant screens. Repeated bursts of applause heralded the sections of the report declaring that all of those killed were innocents, and copies of the Widgery report were shredded in front of the crowd by relatives of victims.
One after another, relatives emphasized the youth of many of those killed — 7 of the 14 were teenagers, including 6 who were only 17 — and their innocence of any wrongdoing. As they did so, they used words like “murdered” and “assassinated” to describe their deaths. “Thirty-eight years, four months, almost to the minute, Kevin is innocent,” said the sister of one of the victims, Kevin McElhinney. Mr. McGuinness, who joined the crowd, denied that he was carrying a gun at the time of the shootings and said that the allegation originated with “British agents or to people who were very close to British agents.” He added, “I think that the key message out of this was the courage and heroism of the families who were prepared to stand for justice for their loved ones and for the citizens of this city, who for almost 40 years had been waiting for those who had been shot on that day to be vindicated.”
Relatives of the victims left little doubt in their statements to the crowd that they will press for murder trials, or at least for prosecutions under an “unlawful killing” provision in British law — a step that would be certain to provoke an angry reaction among the province’s Protestant politicians.
Mr. Cameron said it was an issue for Britain’s independent prosecution service. “These judgments are not matters for a tribunal — or for us as politicians — to decide,” he said.
Cameron Says 1972 N. Ireland Killings Were ‘Unjustified’
By JOHN F. BURNS
LONDON — Prime Minister David Cameron offered an extraordinary apology on Tuesday for the 1972 killings of 14 unarmed demonstrators by British soldiers in Northern Ireland, saying that a long-awaited judicial inquiry had left no doubt that the “Bloody Sunday” shootings were “both unjustified and unjustifiable.”
“What happened should never, ever have happened,” Mr. Cameron said before the House of Commons. “The families of those who died should not have had to live with the pain and hurt of that day, and 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 — and indeed our country — I am deeply sorry.”
While the inquiry seemed to settle the issue of responsibility for the killings, the government in London will still have to tackle the difficult question of whether any of the soldiers involved, or their commanders, should face criminal prosecution.
The publication of the 5,000-page report plunged Mr. Cameron, in office barely a month, into the heart of Northern Ireland’s still-volatile sectarian politics. Like his predecessors as prime minister going back decades, Mr. Cameron had to tread a wary path for fear of reigniting tensions among Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, who have suffered nearly 40 years of bitter dispute over events in the city of Londonderry on Jan. 30, 1972.
On that day, a crowd of about 10,000 gathered to protest the practice of detention without trial, used frequently by the British authorities to curb suspected paramilitary extremists. The outburst of violence effectively ended a nonviolent campaign for civil rights and led to the three decades of sectarian strife that became known as the Troubles, which claimed more than 3,600 lives.
Within weeks of the shootings, another Conservative prime minister, Edward Heath, suspended the parliament in Belfast and imposed direct British rule, which lasted until the Good Friday pact ushered in the new era of power-sharing in Belfast.
The previous British government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown had delayed publication of the report until after the May 6 general election, fearing that the findings might stir political passions during the campaign and undermine the power-sharing government established in Belfast under the 1998 Good Friday agreement. One of the co-leaders of that government, Martin McGuinness, was present at the site of the 1972 killings as an Irish Republican Army commander.
Mr. Cameron chose not to equivocate on the central issue of whether the troops of Britain’s crack parachute regiment had any justification for opening fire with high-powered combat rifles on demonstrators protesting the deployment of heavily armed troops in Catholic areas.
Instead, he effectively endorsed almost every contention that the victims’ families had made over the decades: that the British commander should not have ordered the troops to open fire; that the army fired the first shots; that no warning was given before the army fusillade began; and that “none of the casualties” was carrying a firearm.
In addition, Mr. Cameron quoted approvingly from sections in which the inquiry’s director, Lord Saville, 74, concluded that although there was “some firing” by republican paramilitaries mixed in with the protesters, “none of this firing provided any justification for the shooting of civilian casualties,” and that none of the soldiers fired “in response to attack or threatened attacks by nail or petrol bombers,” as the soldiers and their lawyers had maintained.
Rather, the soldiers reacted to perceived threats from the protesters by “losing their self-control,” “forgetting or ignoring their instructions and training” and with a “serious and widespread loss of fire discipline,” the report said. Perhaps most damagingly, the document described one of the victims having been shot while “crawling away” from the soldiers, another “while he was lying mortally wounded on the ground.”
Mr. Cameron, calling sections of the report “shocking,” said: “You do not defend the British Army by defending the indefensible. We do not honor all those who have served with distinction in keeping the peace and upholding the rule of law in Northern Ireland by hiding from the truth.”
On the role of Mr. McGuinness, a point of particular volatility, the inquiry concluded that although he was present and probably armed with a “submachine gun,” he did not “engage in any activity that provided any of the soldiers with any justification for opening fire.” Allegations to the contrary have fed years of vilification of Mr. McGuinness by Protestant politicians.
The Londonderry shootings have been angrily contested since the day they transpired, and especially after a report completed within weeks by a top British judge, Lord Widgery, that effectively exonerated the troops.
The inquiry was commissioned by Tony Blair, then prime minister, as part of the negotiations that brought about the Good Friday pact, and broke records for the 12 years it took to complete, the nearly 1,400 witnesses who gave evidence and the cost: $280 million. More than half of the money — government funds — went to the lawyers involved, two of whom earned nearly $6 million each.
In Londonderry, thousands of people gathered at the shooting site and applauded as Mr. Cameron’s speech was broadcast live on giant screens. Repeated bursts of applause heralded the sections of the report declaring that all of those killed were innocents, and copies of the Widgery report were shredded in front of the crowd by relatives of victims.
One after another, relatives emphasized the youth of many of those killed — 7 of the 14 were teenagers, including 6 who were only 17 — and their innocence of any wrongdoing. As they did so, they used words like “murdered” and “assassinated” to describe their deaths. “Thirty-eight years, four months, almost to the minute, Kevin is innocent,” said the sister of one of the victims, Kevin McElhinney. Mr. McGuinness, who joined the crowd, denied that he was carrying a gun at the time of the shootings and said that the allegation originated with “British agents or to people who were very close to British agents.” He added, “I think that the key message out of this was the courage and heroism of the families who were prepared to stand for justice for their loved ones and for the citizens of this city, who for almost 40 years had been waiting for those who had been shot on that day to be vindicated.”
Relatives of the victims left little doubt in their statements to the crowd that they will press for murder trials, or at least for prosecutions under an “unlawful killing” provision in British law — a step that would be certain to provoke an angry reaction among the province’s Protestant politicians.
Mr. Cameron said it was an issue for Britain’s independent prosecution service. “These judgments are not matters for a tribunal — or for us as politicians — to decide,” he said.
