Northern Ireland secretary Shaun Woodward has announced that Lord Saville’s long awaited investigation into Bloody Sunday would be made public “within days” of him receiving it at the end of the month.
The families had feared that the 5,000 page report, which took 12 years cost £200 million, could be put in cold storage until the forthcoming general election was over.
However, after meeting relatives of the victims in Derry, Mr Woodward reassured them he would attempt to make it available as soon as he could. “We will do it as quickly as possible,” he said. “Hopefully within a matter of days.”
Lord Saville’s inquiry was set up in 1998 to re-examine the events of January 1972, when soldiers from the Parachute Regiment opened fire on civil rights demonstrators in the Bogside area of Derry, killing 14 and injuring scores more. It was established after the original Widgery Inquiry in the wake of the killings was dismissed by the families as a whitewash.
Last night, Northern Ireland’s would-be justice minister issued an apology for offending Bloody Sunday families.
Alliance leader David Ford had been criticised by relatives of some the victims after a private email in which he described the Saville Inquiry as “pointless” was leaked.
Mr Ford travelled to the city to meet the relatives last night and afterwards he acknowledged that his email had caused offence.
“This comment was taken out of the context of a hastily-written email and is not a full representation of my views,” he said. “I realise that my choice of language was clumsy and inarticulate, and its publication has caused hurt.
”I am very pleased to have been able to meet with some of the families and I have apologised to them for the comment that caused offence.
Mr Ford is favourite to be Stormont’s justice minister when policing and justice powers are devolved to the power-sharing administration because it is felt he is only candidate who can command the required cross-community support within the Assembly.
But the contents of the email sent to the Alliance’s sister party, the Liberal Democrats, last November saw him criticised by Sinn Féin and the SDLP.
PA