NORTHERN SECRETARY Owen Paterson yesterday met relatives of the 13 people shot dead on Bloody Sunday in January 1972, and will soon meet soldiers involved in the shootings.
Speaking after his meeting with victims’ relatives, Mr Paterson said that no member of the former Labour government nor any member of the current British government had yet read the 5,500-page Saville Report into the killings.
On Wednesday it was confirmed that the report would be made public on June 15th following a statement in the House of Commons by British prime minister David Cameron.
When Mr Cameron makes his statement, it will be screened live outside Derry’s Guildhall which was used for the judicial hearings. Among those who will be in the Guildhall Square for the live broadcast will be several thousand people who are expected to take part in a march from the Bloody Sunday memorial plinth in the Bogside, the scene of the killings, to the Guildhall.
The original January 30th, 1972, civil rights march was to have ended in Guildhall Square but the route was blocked by members of the Parachute Regiment.
Following his meeting with the relatives yesterday, Mr Paterson said he was aware of the strong emotions which Bloody Sunday aroused.
“The death of 13 people was, for any family, a terrible thing to have happened. I am very conscious of what the families are feeling but I am also conscious that the soldiers involved were from regiments, some of which are now serving our country overseas,” he said.
Mr Paterson said he would also be meeting the soldiers involved in the Bloody Sunday shootings, possibly next week, to discuss arrangements to enable them to have access to the report at the same time as it is released to the victims’ families.