Families Of Bloody Sunday Victims To Be Offered Compensation

Thu, 22 Sep 2011

The Government has announced it will offer to pay compensation to the families of the victims of Northern Ireland's Bloody Sunday shootings.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said it had written to the lawyers of the families about compensation payments . A spokeswoman said: "We acknowledge the pain felt by these families for nearly 40 years, and that members of the armed forces acted wrongly."

"For that, the government is deeply sorry. We are in contact with the families' solicitors and where there is a legal liability to pay compensation we will do so."

However, some relatives of the victims have rejected the offer. The sisters of 19-year-old William Nash, who was among the victims, said they would never accept MoD money "under any circumstances" and described the idea of compensation as "repulsive" and "offensive".

Bloody Sunday took place when the British Army opened fire on civil rights marchers in the Bogside area of Londonderry on 30 January 1972, claiming the lives of 13 men.

A landmark report into the incident, which made its conclusions last year after 12 years of deliberations, ruled that members of the British Army's Parachute Regiment had fired first and without provocation.

Prime Minister David Cameron presented the findings of the report in June 2010. Speaking to parliament he apologised and said the shootings by the army were "unjustified and unjustifiable".
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