Murder is murder
Ex-MP Cooper calls for soldiers to be prosecuted over deaths as Northern Ireland waits for landmark ruling
ONE of the founders of Northern Ireland’s civil rights movement has backed calls to prosecute former soldiers over the Bloody Sunday killings.
Former MP Ivan Cooper, 75, still regards the fatal shooting of 13 people following a civil rights march in Londonderry on January 30, 1972, with disbelief.
Cooper, one of the civil rights leaders on the march, backed the families calling for prosecutions, saying: “Murder is murder”.
Fifteen others were shot and injured by soldiers from the support company of the 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment.
All 13 victims were declared innocent in 2010 following a 10-year public inquiry.
Then-prime minister David Cameron issued a public apology to the families.
An investigation by the Police Service of Northern Ireland followed the £195million inquiry and files were submitted to the region’s Public Prosecution Service in 2016 and 2017 for consideration.
On Thursday, the PPS is set to announce whether it will pursue prosecutions against any of the 20 suspects. This number includes 18 soldiers, one of whom has since died, and two Official IRA suspects. John Kelly, whose 17-year-old brother Michael was among those shot dead, said it is a day the families have been waiting for with great expectation after 47 years.
Lord Ramsbotham, who was military assistant to the chief of the general staff at the time of Bloody Sunday, said: “I hope that they are not prosecuted because it sets a very difficult precedent.
“It’s a very dangerous precedent.” The question has split Northern Ireland’s parties. DUP MP Gregory Campbell also expressed concern about the sort of precedent it would set in terms of dealing with the past. Ulster Unionist MP and former soldier Doug Beattie said if there is evidence that individuals broke the law, then they should face the law, adding that “so should the IRA members present that day”. Sinn Fein and the SDLP have backed prosecution calls. Recalling the day itself, Cooper said: “I couldn’t believe that people would shoot their kith and kin, the most outrageous thing I have ever seen. “I believe more than anything else: thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not murder. Murder, that’s what it was. “I have no time for them, they shot people down in cold blood. “They have to face justice.”