LONDON — The British government said Thursday it had offered to pay compensation to the families of those killed and wounded in Northern Ireland's Bloody Sunday shootings, but some relatives rejected the idea.
The Ministry of Defence said it had written to the lawyers representing the families of the 14 people killed and those wounded when British troops opened fire on a civil rights march in Londonderry in 1972.
An MoD spokeswoman said: "We acknowledge the pain felt by these families for nearly 40 years, and that members of the armed forces acted wrongly.
"For that, the government is deeply sorry. We are in contact with the families' solicitors and where there is a legal liability to pay compensation we will do so."
Bloody Sunday was one of the darkest chapters in the three decades of sectarian unrest in Northern Ireland known as the Troubles.
A landmark inquiry into the incident, which published its conclusions last year after 12 years of deliberations, ruled that the British army had fired first and without provocation.
When Prime Minister David Cameron presented the findings of the report to parliament in June last year, he apologised and said the shootings by the army were "unjustified and unjustifiable".
Kate and Linda Nash, the sisters of 19-year-old William Nash, who was killed, said they found the idea of compensation "repulsive" and they would not accept a payment "under any circumstances".
The inquiry, chaired by Lord Mark Saville, was the longest-running and most expensive ever in Britain, costing more than 190 million pounds (292 million dollars, 218 million euros).
It found that all 14 who died and those that were injured almost four decades ago were unarmed and completely innocent.
The 5,000-page report revealed that the troops continued to shoot as the protesters fled or lay fatally wounded on the ground. One father was shot as he went to tend to his injured son.
Soldiers later insisted they had only retaliated, in an attempt to cover up the truth, according to the document.
"We found no instances where it appeared to us that soldiers either were or might have been justified in firing," it declared.
The Troubles were largely ended by a 1998 peace deal but emotions still run high in Northern Ireland -- which is part of the United Kingdom along with England, Wales and Scotland -- over its violent history.
Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario