Ballymurphy families seek apology in London
Families of those killed in the Ballymurphy area of West Belfast over 30 years ago will take their campaign for an independent international investigation to London on Wednesday.
A mother-of-eight and a local priest were among those killed in the 1971 shootings, which were carried out by the same British Army Parachute Regiment that, six months later, would kill 13 innocent civilians on Bloody Sunday in Londonderry.
The troops claimed they opened fire after being shot at by republicans.
Families of those killed have called for a new inquest into the deaths to be opened, after fresh information was presented at a Sinn Féin press conference last month.
Sinn Fein MP Pat Doherty, who will accompany the families, said they will be demanding an apology from the government.
“These investigations don’t have to be expensive if the British Government would just realise, if they told the truth and forced the British army to admit what happened then these things could be brought to the surface very quickly and without huge expense”, he said.
As part of the campaign for a fresh inquiry West Belfast MP Gerry Adams said he would put forward an “extensive submission”, which included eyewitness accounts, inquest verdicts, autopsy reports, inquest, statements by Royal Military Police personnel, RUC reports from the date of the killings and Catholic Church archives.
Mr Adams said he would present the documents to Attorney General John Larkin.
However earlier this month the Northern Ireland Secretary of State told Parliament there should be no more open-ended Saville-style investigations into the past.
Owen Paterson was speaking during a debate on the controversial Bloody Sunday Inquiry, which was the longest of its kind in legal history and cost nearly £200m.
Lord Saville’s was delivered in June – 12 years after the inquiry was set up in 1998.
According to Mr Paterson, such excess should never be allowed again.
