The Bloody Sunday shootings would not have happened if the Parachute Regiment had not been deployed in Derry, a soldier claimed today.
Soldier INQ 989 told the Saville Inquiry in London he believed the responsibility for the deaths of 13 civil rights marchers and the 13 casualties lay with those who ordered paratroopers into the city on January 30th, 1972.
He said: "I believe that the paratroopers should never have been deployed in Derry on Bloody Sunday.The paratroopers were used to operating in Belfast, which was a very different, much harder, city than Derry".
Soldier INQ 989 said the fact that only two Royal Anglian troops had been killed in two years in Derry showed their approach was working.
"I think if the Royal Anglians had been left in charge of the city that day, the killings and woundings would not have happened," he said.
"The Royal Anglians' relationship with the people was wiped out in that one day and I think the responsibility for the whole situation lay with those in charge who decided to deploy the paratroopers.
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"I think the young paratroopers who shot the civilians acted irresponsibly, but that they cannot really be blamed for what happened".
Soldier INQ 989 said he and a number of colleagues heard news of how many civilians were killed on the radio as they sat in an armoured vehicle at the city's Ebrington Barracks that night.
"At first we were laughing and clapping as the body count came through because we thought that each death was a victory against terrorists," he said.
"However, as the number of deaths increased, so did the sense that there was something terribly wrong. I find it difficult now to admit that we were celebrating the killings, but we were all young men and perhaps somewhat immature and naive and at first we thought those killed must have been terrorists".
Soldier INQ 989 said the troops knew something was wrong "because you simply do not succeed in killing 13 civilian terrorist gunmen in one afternoon".
"First of all, there was no report of any weapons having been retrieved," he said. "If you shoot and kill a civilian gunman, it is usually nigh on impossible to recover the body or a weapon, because the bodies and weapons are usually spirited away by the gunman's comrades before you can get to them.
"If you did succeed in recovering a body, you should also succeed in recovering the weapon. It just did not add up".
The soldier also said he could not accept that any of those killed were nail bombers, because the device would have exploded if it was dropped when its thrower was shot.
PA