Cowen Meets Bloody Sunday Relatives

The Republic's Taoiseach Brian Cowen is to meet relatives of the victims of Bloody Sunday in Government Buildings this afternoon.

Family members of the victims are also due to meet the leaders of the three Protestant churches in Derry this morning at Rossville Street in the city after walking from the Bloody Sunday Monument to the Guildhall, following the intended route of the thousands who took part in the civil rights march of January 30th, 1972.

Speaking last night, Mr Cowen welcomed the publication and said: "This is the day when the truth has been set free in the City of Derry."

Mr Cowen said the report was not about the re-opening of old wounds, but rather the healing of the "gaping wounds of injustice" left behind by the events of Bloody Sunday.

The Taoiseach also welcomed the "brave and honest words" of Prime Minister David Cameron in the House of Commons.

"I thank him for the good faith he has shown in ensuring that the Saville Report has been published so early in his time in office.

"We think of all of the victims, the bereaved and the injured. And today, we resolve that this will never happen again. The publication of the Saville Report is about the future as well as about the past," Mr Cowen said.

The 60-page executive summary of the report was delivered overnight under heavy security. The full report, which runs to 10 volumes at 5,000 pages, cost an estimated £191m to produce.

Meanwhile, some of the paratroopers who served in Londonderry on Bloody Sunday have criticised the Saville Report.

Six soldiers, none of whom fired shots at the victims, rejected criticism of Lt Col Derek Wilford who was implicated in the report.

They said he was criticised because the report's authors needed to 'place blame' on a senior officer.

The Saville report said Lt Col Wilford should not have launched the incursion into the Bogside area of the city because he disobeyed the orders given by his superior, Brigadier Pat McClellan, and also because his soldiers, whose job it was to arrest rioters, would have no or virtually no means of distinguishing them from those who had been involved in the march.

It said he was also wrong to send soldiers into an unfamiliar area where there was risk of attack from republican paramilitaries, in circumstances where the soldiers' response would risk civilians being killed or injured by army gunfire.

Speaking on the publication of the report yesterday, Prime Minister David Cameron said he was "deeply sorry" and that the findings of the Saville Report were "shocking", prompting a cheer from a crowd gathered in Guildhall Square in Derry.

The head of the Army, General Sir David Richards, said he fully supported Mr Cameron's apology.

"The report leaves me in no doubt that serious mistakes and failings by officers and soldiers on that terrible day led to the deaths of 13 civilians who did nothing that could have justified their shooting."

(DW/GK)