. The killing of civil activists defenders of non -violence, carried out by a group of British soldiers of the Parachute Regiment in Londnderry (Derry, for Catholics), on January 30, 1972, became a symbol of the Irish cause,. 14 people died from the indiscriminate fire of the military. For the first time in more than half a century, a soldier has sat on Monday on the bench, in a Belfast Court, to respond to the accusation of two murders (those of James Wray and William McKinney) and of five other murder attempts.
Soldier F., whose identity remains in the anonymity to guarantee his safety, has declared himself not guilty of all the crimes he is accused of.
First thing in the morning, relatives of the victims and citizens who wanted to express their support have paraded towards the court building behind a banner that prayed “towards justice.”
The brother of one of the murdered, McKinney, has been blunt to celebrate the historical moment: “Within nothing we will sit in the courtroom with pride, with our very high and very aware heads that, whatever the final result, we are on the right side of the story.”
The Independent Investigation Commission, headed by Judge Mark Saville, exonerated the activists in 2010. Conclusions of previous governments had sown doubts and convured the attitude of the army. “What happened had no justification and it was unforgivable. Never, I should never have happened. I ask my most sincere apologies,” said the conservative prime minister, David Cameron, in the British Parliament, at a time when the seed of reconciliation began to bear fruit in Northern Ireland.
However, those responsible for that tragedy never responded to justice, and later conservative governments maneuvered to achieve the immunity of British soldiers who participated in that conflict on the side of the Protestant paramilitaries. Boris Johnson promoted the call Legacy Act (Law of Legacy), an unsimulated attempt to make blur and new account through a “Truth Commission” of which those who told their participation in attacks and crimes could achieve the condonation of their criminal responsibilities. The last conservative prime minister, Rishi Sunak, managed to carry out the law.
It was a rare occasion in which all the political parties of Northern Ireland, unionists, Republicans and others, together with the Ireland government, agreed. The Superior Court of Belfast annulled the most controversial part of the text, and the current British prime minister, Keir Starmer, promised from the outset to revoke the measure. And although he has not yet done so, that will has moved when boosting the case of soldier F., who has ended up sitting on the bench.
A trial that causes division
Citizens who wanted to express their support for the defendant have also come to the Chamber, as well as denounce the legal process. Some members of the paratrooper regiment, with their garnesas berets, have presented themselves in the room. David Johnstone, the commissioner for the veterans of Ireland of the North, has accused a part of the Norwegian society of demonizing the soldiers who were sent to combat in that conflict, and has made it clear that “so that there is some reconciliation in this province, a fair and balanced process of revision of the legacy must first be carried out” that they left behind the years of the years of the years of the years of them. troubles (The riots, as decades of sectarian violence were called).
It will not be a jury trial, despite being two alleged murders. And the soldier F. will hear the views behind a black curtain that will protect his identity.
On behalf of the accusation, lawyer Louis Mally has described a scenario in which a peaceful group of activists manifested in the residential area of Glenfada Park, in Derry. The soldiers “opened fire with their assault weapons and fired the civilians as they fled,” he said. “The shooting was unjustified, civilians were not threat to soldiers, nor is it conceivable that the soldiers see them as threat,” he said.
The soldiers who participated in La Matanza have always insisted that they responded to the shooting supposedly from the protesters. Unionist groups and veterans have considered an act of betrayal for the idea of sitting on the bench to any military who participated in the conflict.
