12 November 2015 - Ex-soldier arrested over Bloody Sunday shootings
Activer le mode zenEx-British Soldier, 66, Is Arrested in Bloody Sunday Massacre
Sewell Chan and Douglas Dalby (The New York Times)
The police in Northern Ireland arrested a 66-year-old man on Tuesday in connection with Bloody Sunday, the infamous massacre of unarmed civilian marchers by British soldiers in Londonderry on Jan. 30, 1972. It was the first time anyone has been arrested in the massacre, for which the British government formally apologized in 2010.
The former soldier, whose name was not released, was arrested in County Antrim and taken to a police station in Belfast for questioning. The BBC reported that the ex-soldier was a former lance corporal — identified in a 2010 report by the pseudonymous initial “J.” He is believed to have been involved in three of the 13 killings that day. A 14th victim died months later.
Lance Corporal J was a member of the Parachute Regiment, the Army unit most hated by Catholic nationalists during the Troubles, the 30-year struggle over the status of Northern Island. Five months before Bloody Sunday, members of the regiment fatally shot 11 unarmed civilians in Belfast. In retaliation, the Irish Republican Army blew up the regiment’s base in Aldershot, England, in 1974, killing seven people.
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Justice for the families
Gerry Moriarty (The Irish Times)
The 66-year-old man, a former member of the British Parachute Regiment which shot dead 13 civilians in Derry on January 30th, 1972 with a 14th dying later from his injuries, was arrested on Tuesday in Co Antrim where he now resides.
Known as Lance Corporal J from the 2010 Saville report into Bloody Sunday, he is being questioned about the killings of William Nash (19), John Young (17) and Michael McDaid (20), security sources confirmed.
Mr Nash, Mr Young and Mr McDaid were shot dead near the rubble barricade in front of the Rossville Flats in Derry on Bloody Sunday.
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Bloody Sunday Enquiry
Bitter legacy of Bloody Sunday rumbles on as former soldier arrested
Owen Bowcott (The Guardian)
The killing by Parachute Regiment soldiers of 13 unarmed protesters during a civil rights march into Derry’s Bogside on 30 January 1972 bequeathed a bitter legacy that remains unresolved nearly half a century on.
The deaths on Bloody Sunday – including a 14th man who died of his injuries months later – and the immediate military denials of responsibility propelled a generation of enraged nationalists into the arms of the Provisional IRA.
The first, now discredited, report by Lord Widgery, published in April 1972, accused the civilian victims of firing weapons or handling bombs – allegations that further infuriated bereaved families.
It took decades of campaigning over Bloody Sunday, the biggest British military killing of civilians on UK soil since the Peterloo massacre in 1819, and the ending of the Troubles, to force the government to agree to a second public investigation.
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Feeling of betrayal
Gordon Rayner, Ben Farmer, Luke Heighton and Camilla Turner (The Telegraph)
Paratroopers who opened fire on rioters on Bloody Sunday feel “betrayed” after a former soldier was held on suspicion of murder and police warned of more arrests to follow.
The 66-year-old ex-Lance Corporal became the first member of the British armed forces to be arrested by detectives investigating the deaths of 14 men at a protest march in Londonderry in 1972.
He was being questioned by Northern Ireland police’s Legacy Investigation branch at a Belfast police station over the fatal shootings of three men and the attempted murder of a fourth during a disturbance that followed the march.
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"12 November 2015 - Ex-soldier arrested over Bloody Sunday shootings", La Clé des Langues [en ligne], Lyon, ENS de LYON/DGESCO (ISSN 2107-7029), décembre 2015. Consulté le 20/04/2024. URL: https://cle.ens-lyon.fr/anglais/key-story/archives-revue-de-presse-2015/12-november-2015-ex-soldier-arrested-over-bloody-sunday-shootings