The Bloody Sunday Inquiry

BY FERN LANE


Two former British soldiers, both members of the 1st Battalion Colstream Guards at the time, told the Bloody Sunday inquiry on Friday that they had been "appalled" at the brutality meted out to detainees held at Fort George.

One of the soldiers, identified as INQ179, said in his statement to the inquiry that he had been so shocked by what had happened that he made a lengthy report, including details of specific incidents, to his commanding officer.

In his statement, INQ179 said he had a "vivid memory of mistreatment" of civilian detainees after the shootings on Bloody Sunday. "It is possible that the paratroopers kicked and struck the civilians - Irish men had been taken off the street and treated appallingly."

His colleague, identified as INQ1224 said in his statement that he recalled that when his commanding officer arrived "he did his nut".

"He had seen the prisoners being spread-eagled and abused and I remember he did his nut about their treatment. He was arguing with a Para officer, whom I did not recognise. I only believe it was a Para officer because anyone of a lower rank would not have argued with that Colonel. Our Colonel insisted that the prisoners should be brought chairs and cups of tea. This sticks in my mind because it was very unusual for officers to argue, especially in front of the men."

However, his commanding officer, INQ598, giving evidence on Friday, denied that he had ever seen such a report, saying: "If I did see the report from him, it is not the sort of thing that can just be put in the pending file - it has to be dealt with."

Earlier this week, a former Cabinet advisor on Northern Ireland to Edward Heath's government, Sir Arthur Hockaday, told the inquiry that shortly before Bloody Sunday a major British Army operation to "reimpose law and order" in Derry had been discussed. He said that he believed the suggestion that such an operation would "necessarily involve numerous civilian casualties" was "overstating matters".

The inquiry was shown minutes of a Cabinet meeting dated 11 January 1972 - only released after legal proceedings to obtain them were initiated last week by Lord Anthony Gifford acting on behalf of the Wray family - at which it was concluded:

"A military operation to reimpose law and order would require seven battalions and would probably involve the commitment for a long time of four battalions to the city. It would be a major operation, necessarily involving numerous civilian casualties and thereby hardening even further the attitude of the Roman Catholic population."