THE Belfast News Letter has called for an official apology for the events of Bloody Sunday. The newspaper says that is the least that can be done for the relatives "of the victims.
In a strongly worded editorial yesterday the paper said that what happened 25 years ago was "unforgivable" and there should be a "heartfelt" and unambiguous apology at the highest level. "The reality is that for years it has been plain that many people died in Londonderry because of an appalling over reaction by troops of the Parachute Regiment," said the paper, which has an overwhelmingly unionist readership.
The editorial challenged the "unionist and Protestant people" of Northern Ireland to "open their minds" to what actually happened on January 30th, 1972, when 13 men were shot dead by the British Parachute Regiment" and another man was fatally injured.
"The Bloody Sunday cause has become so bound up in republican propaganda that unionists find it difficult to sympathise with the plight of relatives who are seeking an official apology from the government."
The editorial made a comparison with events at Drumcree over the last two years and suggests there could have been a similarly bloody end to the Drumcree protests.
In sharp criticism of the "British establishment", it said that Britain, "fearful of world opinion, has had little appetite for trying to discover what really went wrong that day. And even less of an appetite for apologising to the still grieving relatives of the dead."
The paper accepted that many relatives of the victims may "see the News Letter as part of that establishment. Their assessment would be erroneous but, if it will help, the News Letter says today that the events of Bloody Sunday are unforgivable, and that those who lost innocent loved ones deserve nothing less than a heartfelt, unambiguous apology from the highest possible source.
"All the credible evidence points towards a situation where troops, who may or may not have been under fire, themselves opened fire indiscriminately, with scant regard for the lives of those who were guilty of nothing other than protesting for what they believed to be their rights.
"Bloody Sunday today should not be about Brit-bashing speeches by Gerry Adams or Martin McGuinness that are designed to make unionist hearts bristle or cynical journalists trying to even the score of atrocities of the last three decades or about partisan politicians playing at whataboutery. It is about what is acceptable and what is not in a civilised society, and the absolute responsibilities of a government towards all of the people, all of the time.
"An apology is long overdue, and there would be no better time for it. Perhaps then the ghosts of Bloody Sunday will finally be allowed to rest in peace.
In the House of Lords the junior Northern Ireland minister, Baroness Denton, said in a written reply: "The Government is not proposing to make a formal apology.
