Former members of the Parachute Regiment who were involved in the shooting dead of 13 people in Derry on Bloody Sunday are refusing to give evidence to a new inquiry unless their identities are protected, it was reported last night. Their decision follows a recent announcement that witnesses going before the Bloody Sunday inquiry will not be given full anonymity when the tribunal begins public sessions in September.
Fear of reprisals is so great, says the Daily Telegraph, that some have said that full accounts given to the paper will not be given to the inquiry unless their identities are protected.
In January 1998, following renewed Government pressure, the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, ordered a new inquiry, saying "compelling" new evidence had persuaded him to establish a judicial tribunal. However, a former paratrooper quoted in the Daily Telegraph said it would not h ear from him unless he could remain anonymous.
The soldier said they had been told by senior officers that IRA activity was likely at the civil rights march. "Two policemen had been killed in Londonderry a few days earlier and we were told that the IRA wanted to cause as much mayhem as possible . . . There was fire being directed down at us from a height and I could see rounds erupting on the road in front of me. We took cover behind low walls and I could hear low-velocity rounds and the muffled sounds of explosions . . . after taking cover initially, we moved forward and identified gunmen and bombers on the barricades and to the sides. He added: "Everyone killed on that day was guilty of at least riotous behaviour and at worst out-and-out terrorism."