British Government offers compensation to Bloody Sunday families

THE British Ministry of Defence’s offer of compensation to the 14 defenceless civil rights marchers gunned down and the dozens injured by the elite Parachute Regiment on Bloody Sunday in Derry in 1972 has been rejected by some of the relatives.
Thirteen unarmed protesters died after being shot by soldiers of the British Army’s 1 Para regiment in the Bogside area of Derry on January 30th 1972. Twenty-six people were shot altogether, with one of those injured dying more than four months later.
The Ministry of Defence said in a statement: “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.”
In a statement after the MoD’s announcement, solicitors Madden & Finucane, which represents a large number of the Bloody Sunday families and victims, said:
“In 1974, ex-gratia payments of compensation were made to the victims of Bloody Sunday. The amounts paid were based on the flawed conclusions of Lord Widgery and were derisory and wholly inappropriate in amount. The victims will not, therefore, be compensated ‘twice’, as has been claimed by some commentators.
“There is nothing unusual about the payment of proper compensation in a case like this. Indeed, recently the British Government paid compensation to the family of Baha Mousa and nine other Iraqi men who were subjected to horrific assaults by soldiers from the 1 Queen’s Lancashire Regiment in Basra in 2003. These assaults resulted in the death of Baha Mousa, a 26-year-old father of two young children. This payment followed the conclusions of the report by Sir William Gage which found that the treatment of the men was unjustified.
“Following careful consideration of the Saville Report, and the unqualified declaration of innocence of each of the Bloody Sunday dead and injured, we wrote to the Prime Minister, David Cameron, on 24 January 2011, enquiring as to the British Government’s proposals to properly compensate the families of the victims who were murdered on Bloody Sunday, the wounding of others, and for the shameful allegations which besmirched their good names for many years.
“The Ministry of Defence have now written to us indicating that they wish to settle all issues concerning compensation in the near future. We shall be considering this correspondence closely with those that we represent and discussions will shortly commence with Ministry of Defence representatives in order to resolve the issue.”
The family of William Nash (19) have insisted that they want the paratroopers responsible for his death to be prosecuted. They described the British Government’s offer of compensation as “repulsive” and said they would not accept a payment “under any circumstances”.