The Saville Report, which will be published on Tuesday (15 June) will almost certainly conclude that some, if not all, of the 14 demonstrators killed (I would say murdered) by British soldiers were killed illegally. Even the disgracefully rigged Widgery report accepted that four of the deaths "bordered on the reckless," and during the Saville inquiry some soldiers admitted that their statements to Widgery had been "inaccurate" and concocted under duress.

Whether the report will recommend prosecutions remains to be seen. Even if it does, the prosecution service will not instigate criminal trials unless there is a realistic chance of securing convictions. After 38 years, that could be difficult.

I'm not too concerned about whether culpable soldiers should be prosecuted at this late stage anyway, but then I am not enthusiastic about prosecuting war crimes either, especially when many years have elapsed. I realise that victims' relatives may have different views. I would certainly be in favour of prosecuting anyone who can be proved to have been involved in the original cover-up, which involved blackening the names of entirely innocent victims, up to and including putting nail bombs into a victim's pockets. And I would welcome anything that tarnishes the memory of the arrogant Col Wilford, who was the Paratroops commander on the fateful day.

Whatever the outcome, I would have to say that much as I loathe Tony Blair in almost every respect, it is to his credit that he initiated this public inquiry almost at the first opportunity, and it is not his fault that the report was not published during his time in office.

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Note from Joe Offer: The Saville Report was published 15 June 2010. The report is a study of the events of Sunday 30 January 1972, when several demonstrators were killed in Derry in Northern Ireland. The event has become known as Bloody Sunday.
Several threads on this subject were started or refreshed over the last two or three days. Since we generally allow only one active thread on any given subject, I have combined messages from several threads. Check the message title to see where the message came from.


We've had some trouble with impersonation in this thread, so I have deleted a number of Guest messages. From this point (3 July 2010), no other Guest messages will be allowed. You must be logged in if you wish to post. thank you. -Joe Offer, Forum Moderator-