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The Northern Irish city of Londonderry commemorates one of the darkest days in modern UK history on Sunday when, 50 years ago, British troops opened fire without provocation on civil rights protesters.
The anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” comes with Northern Ireland’s fragile peace destabilised by Brexit, and with families of the victims despondent over whether the soldiers involved will ever face trial.
Charlie Nash saw his 19-year-old cousin William Nash killed by one of more than 100 high-velocity rounds fired by members of the British Parachute Regiment on January 30, 1972.
“We thought there might be rioting, but nothing, nothing like what happened. We thought at first they were rubber bullets,” Nash, now 73, told AFP.
“But then we saw Hugh Gilmour (one of six 17-year-old victims) lying dead. We couldn’t take it in. Everyone was running,” he said.
“It’s important for the rest of the world to see what they done to us that day. But will we ever see justice? Never, especially not from Boris Johnson.”
Amnesty?
The UK prime minister this week called Bloody Sunday a “tragic day in our history”. But his government is pushing legislation that critics say amounts to an amnesty for all killings during Northern Ireland’s three decades of sectarian unrest, including by security forces.
Thirteen protesters died on Bloody Sunday, when the paratroopers opened fire through narrow streets and across open wasteland.
Some of the victims were shot in the back, or while on the ground, or while waving white handkerchiefs.
At the entrance to the city’s Catholic Bogside area stands a wall that normally proclaims in large writing: “You are now entering Free Derry.”
But this weekend, as relatives of the victims prepare to retrace the 1972 civil rights march, the mural says: “There is no British justice.”
After an…
Source : france24
