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Britain offers compensation for Bloody Sunday
Source: Agencies |
September 23, 2011, Friday
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BRITAIN said yesterday it will offer compensation payments to the families of people killed and wounded on Bloody Sunday, a nearly 40-year-old massacre by British paratroopers in Northern Ireland that fueled Irish Catholic support for the IRA.
Thirteen people were killed and 14 wounded on January 30, 1972, in Londonderry, when the soldiers opened fire on a Catholic crowd demonstrating against Britain's detention without trial of Irish Republican Army suspects.
Britain compounded local fury by ruling that the troops, none of whom were wounded, were responding to IRA attacks and targeting gunmen.
Last year, Prime Minister David Cameron apologized after a 12-year investigation found the soldiers were not under attack and fired without justification on unarmed civilians.
Britain's Defense Ministry confirmed yesterday it has written to lawyers representing the Londonderry victims' families seeking terms for financial payments.
"We acknowledge the pain felt by these families for nearly 40 years, and that members of the armed forces acted wrongly. For that, the government is deeply sorry," the ministry said in a statement.
Peter Madden, a Belfast lawyer representing many of the victims' families, said negotiations would open with the British government to put a price on the lives lost and maimed and on the damage caused to victims' reputations by the British Army's "shameful allegations" that they were armed IRA members.
But some families rejected any offer of compensation, stressing they want criminal prosecutions of those who opened fire. Nobody has ever been charged over the killings.
"It is repulsive. Offensive. Not now, nor at any time will I accept money," said Linda Nash, whose 19-year-old brother William was shot fatally through the chest. "I want to go forward with prosecutions."
Thirteen people were killed and 14 wounded on January 30, 1972, in Londonderry, when the soldiers opened fire on a Catholic crowd demonstrating against Britain's detention without trial of Irish Republican Army suspects.
Britain compounded local fury by ruling that the troops, none of whom were wounded, were responding to IRA attacks and targeting gunmen.
Last year, Prime Minister David Cameron apologized after a 12-year investigation found the soldiers were not under attack and fired without justification on unarmed civilians.
Britain's Defense Ministry confirmed yesterday it has written to lawyers representing the Londonderry victims' families seeking terms for financial payments.
"We acknowledge the pain felt by these families for nearly 40 years, and that members of the armed forces acted wrongly. For that, the government is deeply sorry," the ministry said in a statement.
Peter Madden, a Belfast lawyer representing many of the victims' families, said negotiations would open with the British government to put a price on the lives lost and maimed and on the damage caused to victims' reputations by the British Army's "shameful allegations" that they were armed IRA members.
But some families rejected any offer of compensation, stressing they want criminal prosecutions of those who opened fire. Nobody has ever been charged over the killings.
"It is repulsive. Offensive. Not now, nor at any time will I accept money," said Linda Nash, whose 19-year-old brother William was shot fatally through the chest. "I want to go forward with prosecutions."
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