(The following article is from the July 1-31,  2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)

For decades, "Bloody Sunday" has been remembered as the most violent day in the British occupation of Northern Ireland. On January 30, 1972, 27 protesters were shot in Derry by the British Army Parachute Regiment during a Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association march. Thirteen men, seven of them teenagers, died immediately, and another man four months later. Witnesses testified that all the victims were unarmed. Five of the wounded were shot in the back.

     The initial investigation held by the British Government, the Widgery Tribunal, largely cleared the soldiers and authorities of blame. But now, the Saville Inquiry, established in 1998 to look at the events again, finally made its report on June 15. The report could lead to criminal investigations for some soldiers involved in the killings.

     British Prime Minister David Cameron acknowledged in the House of Commons that British troops had fired the first shot, then fired on fleeing civilians, and shot dead wounded civilians. Thirty-eight years after the slaughter, Cameron apologised on behalf of the British Government.

     The Report's key findings include the following:

- "Despite the contrary evidence given by soldiers, we have concluded that none of them fired in response to attacks or threatened attacks by nail or petrol bombers."

- The accounts of soldiers to the inquiry were rejected, with a number said to have "knowingly put forward false accounts".

- The soldiers went into the Bogside area due to an order which should not have been given, and the Commander of land forces in Northern Ireland, Major General Robert Ford, would have been aware that the Parachute Regiment had a reputation for using excessive force.

- No blame was placed on the organisers of the march, the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association.

- The Report says: "We have no doubt that there was significant Official IRA activity in the five sectors during Bloody Sunday, though in our view, this did not provide an explanation for why soldiers targeted and hit people who were not posing a threat of causing death or serious injury."

     Commenting from Derry, Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said, "Today is a day for the families of those killed and those injured on Bloody Sunday. They have campaigned for 38 years for the truth and for justice. They have campaigned for the British government to end their policy of cover-up and concealment.

     "The facts of what happened on Bloody Sunday are clear - the British Paras came to Derry and murdered 14 civil rights marchers and injured 13 others. They were unarmed, they posed no threat and they were completely innocent.

     "Today Saville has put the lies of Widgery into the dustbin of history and with it the cover-up which was authorized of the highest levels within the British Establishment and lasted for almost four decades."

     Workers Party of Ireland General Secretary John Lowry also commented on the Saville Report:

     "Responsibility for what happened on that day clearly lies with British government. The decision to deploy the Parachute Regiment on the day clearly ranks of one most catastrophic decisions taken by the British government during the course of what is known as `the troubles' and clearly contributed to what occurred and towards the prolongation of the many years of violence that followed.

     "The demands of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association were entirely legitimate. Let's not forget that the march was in protest against internment without trial which was another catastrophic decision of the British government, which in itself contributed significantly to the suffering which the people of Northern Ireland then had to endure... The Civil Rights Association offered the best hope and way forward for all of the people of Northern Ireland. NICRA sought an end to militarisation and discrimination and demanded jobs and houses for those that needed them and a democratic political system."