Britain yesterday published the long-awaited findings of a probe into the killings of 13 people on Bloody Sunday, a key flashpoint in three decades of unrest in Northern Ireland.
Relatives of those who died when British troops opened fire at a civil rights march in Londonderry in 1972, were among the first to see the report, the result of the longest and most expensive probe in British legal history.
Hours before the report’s publication at 3:30pm, campaigners gathered to symbolically complete the march halted by the killings 38 years ago, while a public parade was also scheduled.
PHOTO: EPA
The report examines the events of Jan. 30, 1972 in Northern Ireland’s second city, when 13 men were shot dead by British soldiers at the march. Others were injured and a 14th man died later from his wounds.
It was a landmark incident in The Troubles — the three decades of violence in which more than 3,500 people died and which were largely ended by the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
The 12-year-long inquiry was intended to paint a full, true picture of what happened on Bloody Sunday more than 38 years ago in Londonderry, known as Derry to Catholics.
The inquiry heard from more than 900 witnesses and received statements from around 2,500 people. The evidence ran to an estimated 20-30 million words.
Families are notably hoping that it will find that none of the dead or wounded people were gunmen or bombers.
Mickey McKinney, whose 27-year-old brother Willie was shot dead on the day, said the British army and government must be held to account.
“We want the truth — a declaration of innocence and a recommendation that those responsible are prosecuted,” he said. “If I know justice has been done, I’ll be able to move on and know I did my best.”
The 5,000-page report was given to the British government on Monday.
Senior British army officers who served in Northern Ireland have said that if soldiers stand trial, then prominent Irish Republican Army figures of the time should also face prosecution.
On the streets of Londonderry there was a sombre mood yesterday, ahead of the report’s publication.
Seventy-one-year-old Wilfred Brown, who was a steward on the march and has lived in the city for 42 years, said the report “brings back a lot of memories of people getting shot for nothing.”
“They shouldn’t have opened up,” he said, standing in front of the Bloody Sunday memorial on Londonderry’s Rossville Street, adding: “I hope there is no trouble.”
DISASTER: The Bangladesh Meteorological Department recorded a magnitude 5.7 and tremors reached as far as Kolkata, India, more than 300km away from the epicenter A powerful earthquake struck Bangladesh yesterday outside the crowded capital, Dhaka, killing at least five people and injuring about a hundred, the government said. The magnitude 5.5 quake struck at 10:38am near Narsingdi, Bangladesh, about 33km from Dhaka, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said. The earthquake sparked fear and chaos with many in the Muslim-majority nation of 170 million people at home on their day off. AFP reporters in Dhaka said they saw people weeping in the streets while others appeared shocked. Bangladesh Interim Leader Muhammad Yunus expressed his “deep shock and sorrow over the news of casualties in various districts.” At least five people,
ON THE LAM: The Brazilian Supreme Court said that the former president tried to burn his ankle monitor off as part of an attempt to orchestrate his escape from Brazil Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro — under house arrest while he appeals a conviction for a foiled coup attempt — was taken into custody on Saturday after the Brazilian Supreme Court deemed him a high flight risk. The court said the far-right firebrand — who was sentenced to 27 years in prison over a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 elections — had attempted to disable his ankle monitor to flee. Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes said Bolsonaro’s detention was a preventive measure as final appeals play out. In a video made
It is one of the world’s most famous unsolved codes whose answer could sell for a fortune — but two US friends say they have already found the secret hidden by Kryptos. The S-shaped copper sculpture has baffled cryptography enthusiasts since its 1990 installation on the grounds of the CIA headquarters in Virginia, with three of its four messages deciphered so far. Yet K4, the final passage, has kept codebreakers scratching their heads. Sculptor Jim Sanborn, 80, has been so overwhelmed by guesses that he started charging US$50 for each response. Sanborn in August announced he would auction the 97-character solution to K4
SHOW OF FORCE: The US has held nine multilateral drills near Guam in the past four months, which Australia said was important to deter coercion in the region Five Chinese research vessels, including ships used for space and missile tracking and underwater mapping, were active in the northwest Pacific last month, as the US stepped up military exercises, data compiled by a Guam-based group shows. Rapid militarization in the northern Pacific gets insufficient attention, the Pacific Center for Island Security said, adding that it makes island populations a potential target in any great-power conflict. “If you look at the number of US and bilateral and multilateral exercises, there is a lot of activity,” Leland Bettis, the director of the group that seeks to flag regional security risks, said in an
RSS