Bloody Sunday probe opens

By Anne Cadwallader

DERRY — Evidence that the British Army was recommending tougher action in Derry four months before the shootings on Bloody Sunday was given to the Tribunal of Inquiry’s first day of public hearings on Monday. The Tribunal is expected to last a minimum of two years.

A series of documents labeled "Top Secret" and "Confidential" were read aloud to the three judges, the families of the 14 dead, and the international media by a British lawyer for the so-called Saville Tribunal, Christopher Clarke.

A memo written on Oct. 7, 1971 by the general commanding the British Army, Michael Carver, to the British prime minister, Edward Heath, read, in part, that it may be necessary to "go into the Bogside and root out the terrorists and hooligans."

He described the three options available to quell civil disturbances at the time as "containment, incursion or domination," recommending the second. This would amount to blocking border roads and "an operation in Londonderry."

Another document read, written by a British brigadier in September 1971, notes that "a purely military solution is most unlikely to succeed" in confronting the IRA.

The same British officer noted that the Catholic population supported the IRA, or at best had a "benevolent neutrality" toward it and that British policy had to be to "isolate the terrorists" from the population.

He accused the IRA of using "a cunning and effective propaganda campaign" and said it had both the initiative and the resources and that internment had "increased the anger of the green community."

Opening his submission to the Tribunal, Clarke said it would be seeking the truth: "not the truth as people see it, not the truth as people would like it to be, but the truth, pure and simple."

"Those who have campaigned for this Tribunal for so long seek no more," said Clarke, opening his submission, which itself is expected to last at least three weeks. "Parliament, which established this Tribunal, seeks no less. Without it, the many concerns which this inquiry is intended to resolve cannot be laid to rest.

"It is a daunting task, particularly because this Tribunal is faced with conflicting evidence to such an extent it is difficult to comprehend that witnesses were present on the same occasion.

"The search for truth has gone as far west as Nevada, as far east as Hong Kong and to every continent on the globe except Antarctica."

Clarke said the ability of the inquiry to get to the truth was dependent on the extent and quality of the evidence available to it, and, second, to the assistance that was provided to it. He said 97 percent of civilian witnesses had now given evidence and all the soldiers who admitted to opening fire on the day.

Lord Mark Saville and two other judges, Canadian William Hoyt and Sir Edward Somers from New Zealand, will reexamine the sequence of events that led to the shootings when 14 unarmed civil rights marchers were killed by members of the British Parachute Regiment in January 1972.

Clarke said that this inquiry has many advantages over the original Widgery Inquiry, namely the extent of material available to it and the length of time open to it to complete its work.

He also defended the integrity of the inquiry. He said that while some people had made up their minds that it will not go after the truth and that the result is already decided, he pledged the inquiry is commitment to discovering what happened is absolute.

Fact-finding exercise

The Saville inquiry is a fact-finding exercise, not a court, and nobody is charged with a criminal offense. Arguments are raging over whether British soldiers, who have won a battle for anonymity, should travel to Derry to testify or whether the Tribunal should adjourn to London to hear their testimony.

The argument may delay proceedings by months. More than 500 people are to testify, aided by a "virtual reality" computer model of 1972 Derry to help them pinpoint their positions during Bloody Sunday.

Before the inquiry opened, about 60 people, including relatives and friends of the dead, walked to the city’s Guildhall carrying a banner that read, "Time for Truth". The previous night, 2,000 people marched by torch and candlelight through the streets of Derry.

Conor Duddy, a nephew of Jack Duddy, who was the first to die on Bloody Sunday, called for the findings of the original inquiry to be repudiated by the new hearings.

"The British government established the Bloody Sunday inquiry because they were obliged to by the families, the people of Derry, Ireland and the international human rights community," he told marchers.

"We have come this far. We have some distance still to go. We say again that that all those killed and injured on Bloody Sunday were innocent. We restate our determination to establish the truth of what happened in our town on that day, and to achieve justice.

"We do so mindful of the vast suffering endured by so many others over the years of conflict. We will insist that the Bloody Sunday Inquiry will be fully independent, fully impartial and fully open; that it will reflect the highest standards of international human rights practice."