'Bloody Sunday' troops to testify

The 1972 killings have long been a focus for protest

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- Paratroopers there on the day have been ordered to give evidence to the "Bloody Sunday" inquiry in Londonderry, Northern Ireland.

Judges investigating the killings of 14 unarmed civilians in Londonderry in 1972 have ruled that troops involved in the incident must return to the city to give evidence.

Lawyers for the soldiers had asked that they be allowed to give their evidence in England.

They had argued that the troops' lives would be at risk if they had to give oral evidence in the city about the controversial episode.

But the international tribunal of judges leading the inquiry said the soldiers can be given "a level of protection sufficient to avoid any such risk."

Thirteen men and youths were shot dead by paratroopers on Sunday, January 30, 1972, following a civil rights march by Roman Catholics. Another man died from his wounds months later.

Paratroopers have always maintained they hit the civilians when they were returning fire after rioting flared.

Relatives of the dead and other civilians say the soldiers' actions were unprovoked and that troops were the aggressors.

Legal sources said around 250 soldiers, including those who fired the fatal shots, are expected to be called as witnesses.

A fresh inquiry was launched by the U.K. government into the shootings following a clamour by the victims' relatives who said the original probe in 1972, which exonerated the troops, had smeared the dead.

The inquiry -- which when launched was seen as a boost for Northern Ireland's struggling peace process -- has held more than 100 days in public session.

The tribunal chaired by Lord Saville of Newdigate ruled that the city was "the proper place" for military witnesses to testify.

The multi-million pound probe has been sitting in public in the Guildhall, Londonderry, for more than a year.

The tribunal was established in early 1998 and set out a preliminary view in December that year that the natural place to hold an inquiry of its type was where the events in question occurred.

Thursday's ruling states: "On that day in a city in Northern Ireland, citizens of the United Kingdom were killed and wounded by British troops.

"The events of that day, though of great national and international concern, have undoubtedly had their most serious and lasting effects on the people of that city. It is there that the grief and outrage that the events occasioned are centred.

"It seems to us that the chances of this inquiry restoring public confidence in general and that of the people most affected in particular (which is the object of public inquiries of this kind) would be very seriously diminished (if not destroyed) by holding the inquiry or a major part of the inquiry far away and across the Irish Sea, unless there were compelling reasons to do so."

The inquiry is currently in recess and returns for public hearings on September 3.

Former Parachute Regiment commander Lt. Gen. Sir Napier Crookenden said the decision was "disgraceful."

"Making those involved give evidence in Londonderry will endanger the officers.

"It will also add to the already significant burden on the security forces in Northern Ireland and quite unnecessarily increase the tensions in the province."

The 85-year-old said the Saville inquiry was "grossly unfair" to the paratroopers.

"It should never have been allowed. We had an inquiry shortly after the so-called 'Bloody Sunday.' To revive it after all this time is unjustified and unfair."