McAleese praises report's fairness on 'momentous day'

PRESIDENT'S REACTION:PRESIDENT MARY McAleese said she hoped the Saville report "at long last" provided families and survivors with consolation "that the world now knows the awful truth about Bloody Sunday".

The great importance of the report was emphasised by the President as she praised the persistence of campaigners.

“It is also a momentous day for the survivors and families of Bloody Sunday as they have pursued their campaign for justice and truth for over 38 years and have done so with resolute and dignified determination,” she said in a statement which she made while on an official visit to China.

She also spoke of the emotion which the report’s publication held for many in Northern Ireland.

“For those who survived, for the bereaved and for the people of Derry, today is a deeply sensitive and distressing day, as well as being a poignant time for all those who were victims or lost loved ones in the Troubles,” she said.

The implications of the findings that deaths and casualties were unjustified and unjustifiable would need to be “considered by the appropriate authorities”.

She praised the “comprehensive scale” of the report, which reflected Lord Saville’s commitment to seek the truth with “fairness, thoroughness and impartiality”.

Mrs McAleese spoke about the damage done by the 1972 Widgery report. It compounded the injustices and suffering and “led many people at the time to despair of the efficacy of politics or peaceful protest,” she said.

“Bloody Sunday thus became a seminal event in the history of the Troubles,” she added.

The Saville report was needed “in the interests of establishing truth and serving justice”, she said. However, it was not required to show that those killed were “innocent of any allegation of handling arms or explosives” because this had been acknowledged by the British government since 1992, she said.

People could best honour the memory of those who died by reading the report in detail and reflecting carefully on its findings and conclusions, she added.

Mrs McAleese thanked Lord Saville, his colleagues and team for 12 years of work and commitment. She also paid tribute to former British prime minister Tony Blair and the late Mo Mowlam, former secretary of state for Northern Ireland, for establishing the tribunal.