Bloody Sunday prosecution

[Somerville]

Only one man will be prosecuted for murdering civilians at the Bloody Sunday civil rights march.

The long-delayed inquiry found that all the killings were unjustified, that every adult and child who was killed had been unarmed, and that no warnings were gven before soldiers opened fire.

British justice at it's finest, eh?

For those who don't know the background, 7 adults and 7 children were shot and killed by Paratroopers in Derry. They were at a peaceful civil rights demonstration.
The coroner ruled that the deaths were murders, but the Tory inquiry was a whitewash, and ruled that the demonstrators fired the first shot. It took more than twwenty years of campaigning by the families to get a new inquiry; it was the biggest and most expensive in the history of the UK.

The Saville Report finally, in 2010, found that the first shot in the vicinity of the march had been fired by the British army and that none of the soldiers had fired in response to attacks by those throwing projectiles. It importantly proved that none of those who were shot had posed any threat to the soldiers. David Cameron apologised for the shootings.

It has taken another nine years for the evidence for prosecutions for the murders to be analysed. We still await prosecutions for perjury, which should be announced soon.

It's pretty appalling. I appreciate that soldiers who fear being accused of murder every time they fire a shot are going to make poor soldiers but this sounds so black-and-white.

I think it's very telling that no commanding officers are included in the prosecution, especially given the history of the attitude of 1 Paras CO and their open disgust for Irish Catholics.

Derry had a kind of uneasy truce between the republicans and the army. The ego of senior COs couldn't cope with there being "no go" areas for the British army and so sent in 1Para to scorch the earth.

Which they had form for doing, and were known to be a pet project of a CO who I can't name here but is easily identifiable if you cross check him with the Ballymurphy Massacre.

So why is it the boots on the ground being prosecuted, but not those in the ivory tower who gave the direct orders?

None of the civilians were proven to be armed, none were proven to be IRA directly, and one was waving a white hanky.

Bloody Sunday was a massacre, deliberately orchestrated by officers.

Why aren't they under scrutiny?

Bad enough that there's only one prosecution. But this quote from Gavin Williamson turned my stomach:

UK Defence Minister Gavin Williamson said the government would offer full legal support to Soldier F - including paying his legal costs and providing welfare support.

"We are indebted to those soldiers who served with courage and distinction to bring peace to Northern Ireland," he said. "The welfare of our former service personnel is of the utmost importance."

It's not difficult to surmise that the reason only 1 soldier has been prosecuted is to make it easier not to link it back to COs...

Disgraceful that at least 12 of the 14 victims won't get justice

If the Para officers actually ordered their men to shoot unarmed civilians, then they are guilty of all 14 murders too

However, the soldiers who actually shot unarmed demobstrators are guilty of murder, whether they did it on their own or were just "following orders"

Paying legal costs is fair enough, not the crawling remarks from Williamson
(as part of his campaign to be the next Tory leader but one)

It's not difficult to surmise that the reason only 1 soldier has been prosecuted is to make it easier not to link it back to COs...

My thinking too.

However, the soldiers who actually shot unarmed demobstrators are guilty of murder, whether they did it on their own or were just "following orders"

I agree, but if they were following orders (as I suspect they were) then the COs ought to be prosecuted too. That was my intention in mentioning them, not to absolve the soldiers themselves. Apologies if I wasn't clear, that was my mistake.

I should add that DP is ex army and he supports the prosecutions.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/10322583

I finally found this report I remembered, which goes through the main evidence found in Savile Report for each soldier, including CO's. It's "Lance Corporal F" who is the only one facing prosecution for the deaths and injuries.
Hopefully some of the others will at least face perjury prosecutions.

I should add that DP is ex army and he supports the prosecutions.

I'd like to thank you for sharing that. It helps me a bit with my ongoing fear of men in British army uniform. (Shared by lots of us Catholics who grew up in Derry in the bad old days, unfortunately).

Never in all the years since the GFA has a Tory government disdain for Ireland, NI and the position of Catholics in NI ever been closer to the surface than now.

We are such dangerous times. I honestly don't know how the GFA is going to be maintained.

www.spectator.co.uk/2019/03/the-case-for-prosecuting-bloody-sunday-soldier-f/

A good piece in the Spectator of all places.

"F" is by all accounts an exceptional case.

Now how do you get a jury that will convict after all these years?

See also Guildford, Birmingham, Hyde Park etc.

Sauce for the Goose?

Somerville he is at pains to say he was a Scottish soldier, not many that I know ever supported British intervention in Ireland. The brutality inflicted on innocents I cannot find the words to describe accurately.

I would never support violence of any kind, but if you were to ask me which side of the conflict I'd agree with, it would be Irish nationalists.

I'm sorry that you and so many others lived in such fear and were treated so dreadfully. I hope that some of this brings you peace.

The part I find most strange is that nobody really mentions that there was never any need for them to be in Bogside that day, that it wasn't a riot until the army turned up, and was, in fact, a protest at the removal of the right to protest, internment (a small word for an enormous injustice), lack of housing and gerrymandering along with the introduction of the B specials.

All of which were undemocratic and unfair, all of which didn't need to happen in the first place, and should never have been allowed!

I don’t support this prosecution. We were at war and British soldiers acted accordingly

Firing on unarmed, non military civilians bears no relation to being at war.

It was a protest, not a military or even paramilitary attack.

Oh and technically (affecting only the British army's rules of engagement), the British occupation of NI was NOT a war, but peacekeeping.

The rules of engagement are clear, there must be a direct threat (shot fired by the opposite side first) in order to open fire during peacekeeping.

The army fired first.

We were at war and British soldiers acted accordingly

At war? With unarmed civilians marching for civil rights?

We were definitely NOT at war that day ffs! It was a civil rights march, and the people involved were unarmed, it was a massacre, and probably acted as an excellent propaganda tool for the IRA. The top brass should be in the dock, not the scapegoat soldier.

We were at war and British soldiers acted accordingly

Nope - no-one was at war. If you have a different viewpoint from others on the thread - that's grand, you're entitled to it. But don't make up lies to make your point. It makes you look stupid and exceptionally ill informed. And Christ knows we've had enough lies about that day.

Even if the UK had been at war ( with itself as this was its own citizens on its own streets) shooting an unarmed child in the back while they crawled away and then kneeling, taking aim and shooting in the head the civilian waving a white handkerchief trying to tend that unarmed child would still rightfully lead to a murder charge.

The thing is, the media barely even covered some of the atrocities committed by the army in NI. In the UK anyway.

Because it doesn't suit their agenda. There is no recognition of the terrorising of catholic communities.

A wee girl had to be stopped from going to her father's funeral (he was shot dead by 1Para in Ballymurphy) because the same soldiers who killed her Daddy drove past on the day of his funeral, singing "where's your papa gone?"

That's not fear or exuberance, it's fucking cruelty.

I don’t support this prosecution. We were at war and British soldiers acted accordingly

It was a civil rights march.

We were at war and British soldiers acted accordingly

When the UN wanted to send in peacekeepers the British government were repeatedly very clear that it wasn't a war.

Not that soldiers are allowed to shoot unarmed civilians even in a war.

One round went through one side of the victim's body and out the other.

Proving that he had his hands raised at the time!

Others were shot from a downwards trajectory (the soldiers on the city walls) which means they were sitting ducks.