March organizers anticipate that people will come to the march from all over Ireland, south and north, "as well as Britain, the United States, and elsewhere," said John Kelly in a telephone interview with the Militant. The brother of Michael Kelly, one of the 14 people killed by British gunfire that day, John Kelly is a family liason officer with the Derry-based Bloody Sunday Trust.

Kelly commented on developments in the current inquiry set up by the British government into the events of three decades ago. The inquiry was set up after decades of campaigning by the families of those killed, he said. They were determined to establish the truth about the killings after the government had whitewashed the army’s conduct in an inquiry it organized just after Bloody Sunday.

Edward Heath, who was the prime minister at the time, gave evidence before the inquiry on January 14 "A lot of people believed this would never happen," said Kelly, "that the British prime minister of the day would be brought to answer our questions. I’m delighted."

During his evidence Heath claimed that it was "absurd" to suggest that the government had planned the killings.

"Of course he will try to conceal the truth," said Kelly. "Both the government ministers and the military officers that have given evidence at the tribunal have tried to lay responsibility on each other. What is absurd is that Heath would have no knowledge prior to Bloody Sunday--he was the prime minister, he chaired security meetings in the days before."

Kelly went on to explain how the inquiry has heard evidence that reveals British officers adjusted their weapons just before Bloody Sunday to make them more effective.

In the months to come the inquiry is due to hear from 320 soldiers. Now that 30 years have passed, he said, "some of them will step outside the framework of the arguments of the army hierarchy and politicians and explain how this was planned and executed."

Evidence given by an officer at October sessions of the inquiry is a case in point, said Kelly. The witness was disguised at the inquiry and designated only as Soldier 027.

The officer was told the night before the massacre that the next day would provide an opportunity to "get some kills." The lieutenant accused of making those remarks denies them. The soldier also gave a graphic description of the conduct of British forces in Northern Ireland, describing the pilfering of suspects whom they stopped and searched, and the routine beatings that they handed out to the nationalist population. " I did things that I am ashamed of," he said.

"The fact that the inquiry is ongoing and in the public eye makes this year’s march as important as ever," Kelly said. "People will come because they know that this is not over yet, the evidence we will hear in the months to come from other soldiers will be among the most important."

The Derry march takes place against the backdrop of undefeated resistance by Irish nationalists to British rule. "Other campaigns are getting organized - some of them have been watching us and are picking up on the success that we have had," said Kelly. In the 1970s the British unleashed internment without trial against Irish nationalists, utilized extralegal loyalist terror gangs, and directly killed many others as they had done on Bloody Sunday.

Despite this repression the British forces failed to stem the rise in struggle to end British rule in Ireland. Now relatives of others killed by British forces in this period--both in Derry and across Northern Ireland--are beginning to demand that the truth be told about how their relatives were killed.

As part of the buildup to the march the Bloody Sunday Organising Committee in London will hold a public meeting on January 26 featuring one of the relatives of those killed, a representative of Sinn Fein, and former Member of Parliament Anthony Benn.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home