Saville security concerns ‘bogus’
National security concerns over the Bloody Sunday report are bogus and disingenuous, it has been claimed.
Sinn Fein MLA Raymond McCartney said the Government should have published Lord Saville’s mammoth findings before the suspension of Parliament.
The next government will have to deal with the £200 million probe’s conclusions after the May 6 poll.
Mr McCartney said the families of the 14 men shot dead by British soldiers were frustrated at the continued delays.
“The British Government spurned the opportunity to do the right thing for what can only be described as partisan and sectional considerations,” he said.
Relatives of the dead men, civil rights protesters shot dead by paratroopers in Londonderry in January 1972, believe Lord Saville could have been trusted not to endanger the ‘right-to-life’ of soldiers or other witnesses.
Mr McCartney added: “Any suggestion that Lord Saville would not have given due regard to so called British national interest concerns is in my opinion disingenuous and bogus.”
He said the delay until after the General Election gave a distinct advantage to the British state and its agencies, which received the report from Lord Saville late last month despite families’ concerns about leaking or manipulation of the material.
“It is in this context that the families express their anger, their frustration and their disappointment, all of which in my opinion and I hope in other people’s opinion is totally and absolutely justified,” he said.
It has been 12 years since former British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced the inquiry. Families had pressed for Lord Saville’s report to be published immediately upon its completion. Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward said he would not be fulfilling his legal responsibility to protect life were he to do so.
