16/06/2010

The families of civilians who lost their lives in the Bloody Sunday shootings are finally being given access to the long awaited Saville report today.

The £191 million report into how 14 were killed when soldiers opened fire on a civil rights march in Londonderry in January 1972 is being published by David Cameron later.

It is expected to conclude that they were unlawfully killed leading to pressure for soldiers who took part to be prosecuted.

The report will be read today by 56 people, including survivors who were injured in the blast and members of the families of those who died.

A small group of lawyers who represented the families at Lord Saville’s inquiry have already begun reading through the 5,000-page report.

To mark the report’s publication, 10,000 people are expected to follow the path of the original protest through Londonderry’s bogside area, where the killings occurred.

They will end their procession at the Guildhall where the families of those killed have been given access to the report.

The inquiry will repudiate allegations in the now-discredited Widgery report, carried out within weeks of the incident which ignited the Northern Ireland Troubles, that paratroopers involved in the shootings were acting in self-defence and that many of the dead had been handling firearms.

Lawyers for the Bloody Sunday families are planning to press for those who opened fire to be prosecuted for murder.

While Lord Saville, the Inquiry chairman, is likely to stop short of recommending prosecution, David Cameron is expected to announce that the decision will be referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland.

The prospect of soldiers acting under orders facing criminal charges has angered many unionists and the military, who say it would be an injustice after hundreds of IRA and loyalist paramilitary prisoners were released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness, who was a member of the Provisional IRA in 1972, also faced questions from the inquiry as to his activities on Bloody Sunday.

Meanwhile senior army official and ex-soldiers have said that McGuinness should also be held to account.

Speaking to The Guardian, Major-General Julian Thompson, a Royal Marines commanding officer in south Armagh during the Troubles, said that if Saville found UK troops guilty then individuals such as Sinn Féin's McGuinness should also be held to account.

Thompson said: "In that case, let's prosecute the IRA as well, men like McGuinness. How about drawing a line under this unless we want to go and prosecute all the IRA guys who murdered as well? It's ironic that these guys [British soldiers] could be prosecuted and the people who've murdered 20 times more than they have are being allowed off ."

The report will include findings on both the Provisional and Official IRA, the latter of which has already admitted to firing a small number of shots on the day.

Lord Saville has been heavily criticised for the length of his inquiry, which was expected to last two years when it was ordered by Tony Blair in 1998.

Nearly 1,000 witnesses gave evidence, including soldiers, civilians, police, politicians, forensic experts, journalists, civilians, priests and members of the IRA, including Martin McGuinness, the Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister.