Compensation Offered to Bloody Sunday Families
September 22, 2011 TheFreshOutlook  |
MoD announces that compensation will be offered to the families of those killed and wounded by British Soldiers in 1972.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has offered compensation to families of those killed and wounded by British troops in Northern Ireland in 1972; an incident known as Bloody Sunday.
“We acknowledge the pain felt by these families for nearly 40 years, and that members of the armed forces acted wrongly. We are in contact with the families’ solicitors and where this is a legal liability to pay compensation we will do so,” said a MoD statement.
Bloody Sunday happened on January 30 1972 after soldiers from the Parachute Regiment opened fire on civil rights marchers in Derry, killing 13 unarmed and innocent civilians. Months later, a 14th man died from his injuries in hospital.
The march had been taking place as part of a protest by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association against the introduction of internment without trial; a provision that allowed the authorities to jail suspected members of paramilitaries without legal procedure. Catholics complained that internment was disproportionate in that it focused primarily on them by targeting the membership of the Provisional IRA, whilst paying no attention to loyalist paramilitaries. They saw it as an example of the institutional sectarianism of the Northern Irish State, which was controlled by Protestant unionist hegemony.
In June 2010, Prime Minister David Cameron made an unconditional apology for the actions of the Parachute regiment on Bloody Sunday. It came after the publication of a new enquiry, the Saville Report, which found the soldiers’ allegations that some protestors were armed to be completely false.
“Despite the contrary evidence given by soldiers, we have concluded that none of them fired in response to attacks or threatened attacks by nail or petrol bombs. No one threw or threatened attacks by nail or petrol bombs on Bloody Sunday,” said the report.
The report also said that some of those killed had been fleeing the area when shot, and also that soldiers had opened fire on and killed a man waving a white handkerchief.
The Saville Report discredited the original investigation into Bloody Sunday, held in 1972. This report, led by Lord Widgery, had blamed the marchers for inciting confrontation with soldiers.
Bloody Sunday happened in the bloodiest year of Northern Ireland’s Troubles. Many attribute the IRA’s growth in the 1970s to the sense of rage that developed within Northern Ireland’s Catholic community following the attacks. The Troubles lasted until 1998 and led to the deaths of over 3,500 people.
The BBC is reporting that the MoD’s offer comes after a request by lawyers representing the victims families to know what was being done to “fully compensate” them for “the loss of their loved ones, the wounding of others, and the shameful allegations which besmirched their good name for many years”.
However, some families have rejected the offer of compensation, describing it as “repulsive” in light of the fact that no soldiers have yet been prosecuted for their actions.
By Dermot Tobin
[Image courtesy of Machine Made]
