Report: ’72 killings by British troops unjustified

June 16, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Los Angeles Times

LONDON

Nearly 40 years after British soldiers shocked the world by shooting to death 14 protesters in Northern Ireland, an official investigation concluded Tuesday that the demonstrators posed no threat and that the killings were completely unjustified.

The massacre on the streets of Londonderry on Jan. 30, 1972, was seared in the British and Irish consciousness as Bloody Sunday and marked one of the most important turning points in the conflict in the British province of Northern Ireland. The incident radicalized Roman Catholic republican activists and ratcheted up the level of sectarian violence in “the Troubles,” which ultimately claimed more than 3,000 lives.

Tuesday’s long-awaited report overturned a government inquiry conducted immediately after the shootings, which acknowledged that the security forces’ actions might have “bordered on the reckless” but alleged that the victims had been armed with guns and homemade bombs.

The new investigation rejected that accusation and harshly condemned paratroopers for using excessive force. The report says the soldiers opened fire without provocation, gave the protesters no warning, shot people who clearly were fleeing and then lied to investigators about the incident afterward.

The report stops short of labeling the deaths state-sanctioned murder, and under the terms of the investigation, it will be difficult to mount criminal prosecutions of the soldiers involved.

But relatives of the victims were jubilant at finally having their loved ones’ names cleared and the circumstances of their deaths officially recognized. They ripped up copies of the previous government investigation and shouted “Innocent!” to hundreds of cheering supporters in Londonderry who retraced the steps of the 1972 march.

“The victims of Bloody Sunday have been vindicated, and the parachute regiment has been disgraced. Their medals of honor have to be removed,” said Tony Doherty, whose father, Patrick, was killed while trying to crawl to safety.

It took far longer and cost much more than anyone ever expected. The investigation was commissioned by then-Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1998 as part of the peace process that eventually resulted in today’s power-sharing government in Northern Ireland.

What was supposed to take two years turned into the longest-running and most expensive legal inquiry in British history, lasting 12 years and costing taxpayers a staggering $280 million.