Bloody Sunday victims’ families to receive MoD compensation

Ministry of Defence says it is in contact with lawyers of victims’ relatives and is preparing to make amends where required The British government is to pay compensation to families of those killed or wounded on Bloody Sunday, the Ministry of Defence announced on Thursday. More than a year after David Cameron apologised to the victims and described the 1972 Derry shootings as “unjustified and unjustifiable”, the Ministry of Defence has said it is in contact with the lawyers of victims’ relatives and is preparing to make amends where required. “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,” said an MoD spokesman. “We are in contact with the families’ solicitors and where there is a legal liability to pay compensation we will do so.” Thirteen unarmed civilians died in the Bloody Sunday shootings, when paratroopers opened fire during a civil rights protest in the Bogside area of Derry in January 1972. A 14th man died of his wounds several months later. An initial inquiry absolved the soldiers and the government of much of the blame, and in 1974 the MoD made a series of mostly small payments without accepting any responsibility. But last year’s Saville inquiry , which was 12 years in the making, came to the unequivocal conclusion that the killings had been unjustified. “We found no instances where it appeared to us that soldiers either were or might have been justified in firing,” it said. “Despite the contrary evidence given by soldiers, we have concluded that none of them fired in response to attacks or threatened attacks by nail or petrol bombers. No one threw or threatened to throw a nail or petrol bomb at the soldiers on Bloody Sunday.” According to the BBC, the move to pay compensation comes after lawyers for most of the families wrote to the prime minister asking what steps he would take to “fully compensate” them for “the loss of their loved ones, the wounding of others, and the shameful allegations which besmirched their good name for many years.” It is not yet clear who exactly will be compensated, and by how much, as many of those directly affected by the shootings have since died, and it is not known whether more distant relatives will make claims. Bloody Sunday Northern Ireland Ministry of Defence Military Ireland Lizzy Davies guardian.co.uk

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