DUP FIRST Minister Peter Robinson has formally accepted that the Bloody Sunday shootings in which 13 people were killed and 15 injured were “wrong” and “unjustified”.
Mr Robinson, in contrast to DUP MP for East Derry Gregory Campbell who has issued negative comments about the Saville inquiry, hoped the report would help bring “closure” for the families.
The First Minister hoped Lord Saville’s findings would provide the families with a “sense of justice” and called for new initiatives so that all victims of the Troubles could find ease and some form of satisfaction.
“As First Minister I accept the report. I accept the conclusions of the report that what happened was wrong and unjustified,” he said in Belfast last night.
He offered his sympathy to those who were bereaved and injured and called for a new system where all victims of the conflict could put their stories on the public record.
“I strongly believe the best way of dealing with issues of the past is to have a public record where all those who are the victims can put on record their stories,” he added.
Mr Robinson said paramilitaries must come clean about their past to “help bring closure” to all victims. “There’s a requirement from all of the paramilitary organisations to ’fess up and indicate the roles that they played,” he said.
While a number of the families called for some of the soldiers implicated in the Bloody Sunday killings to be prosecuted, Mr Robinson advised against such action. At this remove he did not believe it would be possible to provide evidence to lead to convictions. He believed it was now time for the families to “move on”.
Nonetheless, the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) in the North and the British Crown Prosecution Service are to consider whether there are cases for perjury to be taken against soldiers whom Lord Saville found had lied to his tribunal.
PSNI Chief Constable Matt Baggott and PPS head Sir Alasdair Fraser are also to meet to discuss issues around possible prosecution of soldiers over the killings on January 30th, 1972. Thirteen people were killed on the day while a 14th man, John Johnston, died in June 1972.
Since publication of the report on Tuesday there has been a tangible sense of the Bloody Sunday families and others seeking to make the report an opportunity for reconciliation.
The Church of Ireland Bishop of Derry and Raphoe Ken Good, Presbyterian moderator Norman Hamilton, and president of the Methodist Church in Ireland Paul Kingston in short speeches at the memorial focused on the opportunity for “healing”.
In Dublin Taoiseach Brian Cowen was presented with a bound copy of the report by the families of the Bloody Sunday victims in appreciation of the support they received from successive Irish governments.
At a meeting in Government Buildings he congratulated the families “on the success of their long and difficult campaign” to clear the names of those who were killed and wounded on the day.
