Video - Outrage as British Government rejects review panel into Ballymurphy Massacre

THE FAMILIES of those murdered during a British Army shooting rampage in west Belfast have reacted with anger to the decision by British Secretary of State Theresa Villiers not to establish an independent review panel into the Ballymurphy Massacre of August 1971.

Briege Voyle, whose mother Joan Connolly was shot dead by British soldiers during the killing spree, said she was "devastated" and "could not believe" that Theresa Villiers had claimed an inquiry was "not in the public interest".

Speaking to An Phoblacht, she said:

"Here we go again, the British Government has taken it on again to hide their secrets. At the end of the day our loved ones were murdered. What about us? Do we not matter?"

She also pledged that the families would take their campaign to the home of British Prime Minister David Cameron at Downing Street.

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams TD said the decision is further evidence of a British government determined to prevent victims of British state violence from getting to the truth:

"There is effectively an amnesty in place for those British forces who directly killed hundreds of citizens or who through collusion with unionist death squads killed many hundreds more."

The Louth TD commended the families of the Ballymurphy victims for showing " remarkable courage and fortitude, under the most difficult of circumstances".

Taoiseach Enda Kenny said he was "disappointed" with the decision by the British Government not to hold an inquiry, adding:

"Notwithstanding this setback, I hope that it will still be possible to find a way for the families to get the truth and to vindicate fully the good names of their loved ones."

11 civilians – 10 men, including a local priest, and a mother of eight children – were killed by the British Army’s Parachute Regiment in a shooting rampage in Ballymurphy in the 36 hours following the introduction of internment without trial in August 1971. The same regiment went on less than six months later to gun down 14 civil rights marchers in Derry City on Bloody Sunday.

In both cases, the Paras claimed they returned fire after being fired at first. This was proven to be untrue for Bloody Sunday and has also been discredited by dozens of eyewitnesses to the Ballymurphy Massacre.