Readers' views on Saville

Sir,

After twelve years and goodness knows how much money the conclusion to the Bloody Sunday Saville hearings comes upon us. So the soldiers are guilty and the marchers innocent, perhaps something everybody knew all along. But the conflict of Northern Ireland caused death and destruction on all sides and many injustices come to that.

The sadness of death during those dark days occured within the city of Birmingham in 1974 and many died and suffered - have the relatives or victims of that bloody night ever got real justice for all they suffered? I remember as a child coming back from Birmingham with my family hours before the bombs went off.

Has the IRA or its sympathisers ever apologised properly for that attrocity ? The NI Peace process was an overall conclusion thankfully to a bloody national War that would have gone on forever if allowed. In itself it was a type of apology to all that had gone before by all those involved in bringing death and destruction on different sides.

But how many victims or relatives of those difficult times received personal apologies I wonder from the people who caused those atrocities? It seems the majority of relatives of victims and the victims themselves, who survived this mayhem, have put their heads down quietly, accepted the status quo as it was, carried on putting flowers on the respective graves and never looked back. The British way in many respects. The only way of the silent majority in this country and we should never forget their sufferings also.

Who knows if that method of coping helped, only they can answer that, but it would have been nice if all the money and publicity spent on the Saville Inquiry could have been used to compensate all those who suffered generally during the NI troubles. Perhaps it would have been particularly nice to see a few more terror units from either side of the religous and political divide apologise a bit more publically or even privately in the interim, rather than allow the sorrows of the whole conflict to be absorbed too generally into the findings of the Peace Process.

Perhaps the truth of all killings during the NI troubles, over the last Forty years, should all come to the fore now and have its own similar Saville Inquiry imposed upon it? Can and worms comes to mind here more than ever now.

Name and address supplied

Sir,

May I congratulate the Protestant church leaders who reached out the hand of friendship to the Bloody Sunday families last week?

Reading some of the comments about the results of the Saville tribunal filled me with despair so it was good to see a Christian and human approach being taken by such prominent churchmen to the families, who have suffered so much over the years by seeing this cloud of doubt left hanging over their loved ones.

It was good that last week this cloud, to use Bishop Ken Good's analogy, was finally lifted.

Now, far from creating a hierarchy of victims, the Saville tribunal's report has done away with a hierarchy of victims, by saying that innocent victims of unjustified violence by soldiers were equal to other innocent victims here. That's how it should be. It was right that the truth should emerge.

A number of commentators mentioned atrocities such as Claudy, Teebane, Enniskillen and La Mon and many other acts of terrorism.

It has always been accepted that all the victims of those massacres were murdered, there has never been the slightest doubt or argument about that. But in the case of the Bloody Sunday dead, not only had the law decided that they were not murdered, there was nothing in legal records to even suggest that the deaths were unjustifiable in any way.

Now the record has finally been put straight and the victims of Bloody Sunday can finally take their place alongside the other innocent victims of the Northern Ireland Troubles. They too have now been declared to have been unjustifiably killed and their killers are potentially open to the same course of legal action as the killers of any other innocent person in Northern Ireland, or anywhere else for that matter.

Those politicians who make comparisons with the actions of terror groups, miss an important point and take 'whataboutery' to a new level.

The State cannot allow itself to be judged against the actions of terrorists. David Cameron could see that and his speech was masterly. It is in the interests of all people - not just nationalists in Northern Ireland - that justice is always seen to be done no matter how long ago an offence occurred.

On that point, I very much doubt whether some of those who say there should be no prosecutions in this instance would adopt the same attitude were new evidence to emerge that could lead to prosecutions of republican or loyalist terrorists who were responsible for killing people even 30 or 40 years ago.

The length of time that has passed is not relevant to the cause of justice. Nor is the context of the Troubles: in fact given the elite reputation of the Parachute regiment one would have expected its soldiers to be able to deal with the tensions without reacting in the way some of these soldiers did.

However a new hope has emerged with the publication of the Saville report and the response of Protestant church and community leaders in acknowledging that a great wrong was done has been very mature, and done in a way that shows confidence in their own positions.

The truth has been told about one pivotal event in modern history and we can see its healing effects - if others could now do the same, including prominent republicans, we might indeed finally begin to heal the wounds that are still causing so much pain to so many people.

Name and address supplied

Sir,

AFTER the publication of the report into the "Bloody Sunday" shootings I would like to say to you the people and to the families of the innocent victims that I am not too proud a British citizen to say I am sorry for what happened.

I was not there and do not profess to know or understand anything other than the accounts that I have read but it has been found that the soldiers' commanding officer was wrong to send troops to a particular area and this led to serious and tragic errors which resulted in innocent people being killed.

Two wrongs clearly do not make a right and irrespective of the political or paramilitary groups attendence at the march, innocent people lost their lives and their families have been forced to endure a lifetime of grief and bitterness as a result of illegal actions.

This conclusion and publication of the report serves to highlight the fact that Northern Ireland has come so far over recent years and many many people are still working to ensure a peaceful future for everyone. Once again I repeat that I am sorry and pray that you may never have to suffer like this again.

Name and address supplied