A FORMER English paratrooper who was in Derry on Bloody Sunday has said that there was no justification for the killings of 14 unarmed civilians by British troops in the city 25 years ago.
The soldier criticised senior British officers for the handling of events. He expressed remorse for what happened and said that the least the families of the victims deserved was an apology.
His comments coincided with a statement from the four main Irish church leaders welcoming a British government commitment to examine any new evidence on Bloody Sunday.
The remarks of the former paratrooper, who did riot reveal his identity, and a call from the Catholic and Protestant churchmen to have the examination carried out "expeditiously", will add further weight to the campaign to initiate a new inquiry into Bloody Sunday.
The former soldier told BBC Radio Ulster's Talkback programme yesterday that when the 1 Para battalion was called to Derry from Belfast to deal with the civil rights march, there was an "anticipation of encountering something on a scale which hadn't been confronted in Belfast".
He agreed that the soldiers were hyped up". The soldiers who were used to riots in Belfast did not make any distinction between such rioting arid civil rights marches, he believed. They were expecting to confront a riot.
The preconceived view of what the soldiers expected to encounter, their briefings, and the lack of time to properly assess the situation contributed to what had happened. He agreed it was "largely correct" that there was an element of "shambles" and very little control from senior army ranks at the time.
"I did not think there was justification [for the killings]. Even had there been the odd weapon or the odd round fired at the soldiers it still did not justify the response that occurred," he said.
"The deaths and injuries that occurred were an entirely inappropriate response to whatever threat was being offered. From my standpoint, apart from the intimidation of a large body of people being together, there was no threat. I saw nothing the warranted opening fire with live rounds.
"Speaking for myself I feel a sense of remorse for the suffering that was caused to the individuals concerned, their families, and subsequently young men who were motivated to join the ranks of the IRA and as a consequence spent the best years of their lives in jail." He believed an acknowledgment of what had occurred and some form of apology was appropriate.
He asked what useful purpose could derive from an inquiry. "I believe that the interested parties on all sides are fully aware of what occurred that day.
"A large degree of responsibility must lie with whoever directed a unit like 1 Para into the situation in the first place," he said. "If the judgments that are made at a higher level are found wanting - which they certainly were on that occasion - it would be nice if someone was prepared to acknowledge their part in what occurred."
