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Inquests into the deaths of 10 people in Northern Ireland’s capital Belfast during a British Army operation in August 1971 concluded on Tuesday that all of them were civilians who posed no threat to the soldiers, and that the use of force by the army was “clearly disproportionate.”
Between August 9-11, 1971, during The Troubles, in Belfast’s Ballymurphy area, the Parachute Regiment of the British Army arrested and detained people suspected to be members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), which opposed the British rule. This was part of the army’s rounding up of suspects for internment without trial in Republican districts across the country. About 3,600 people were killed in the conflict between the IRA, pro-British “loyalist” paramilitary and the British Army by the time it ended with the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. The events of these three days are known by the survivors as the Ballymurphy massacre. While inquests had been conducted in 1972, they were dismissed as inadequate by the victims’ relatives, and fresh inquests were opened in 2018.
While nine of the 10 victims, all found to have been innocent, were found by the coroner Justice Siobhan Keegan to have been killed by British soldiers using unjustified force, the perpetrator in the tenth death, that of John McKerr, could not be ascertained. The British Army had claimed that a few victims had been armed and shooting, which was the reason the soldiers opened fire. Keegan said the shootings were not proved to have been justified and that “clearly disproportionate” force was used in the nine deaths at the hands of the army.
Louise Haigh, Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, said:
While no one has ever been charged over the killings, a former paratrooper, identified as M3, may now face prosecution over the killing of Edward Doherty on the second day of the violence, after he admitted before Keegan that he had fired the shot that killed Doherty.
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Between August 9-11, 1971, during The Troubles, in Belfast’s Ballymurphy area, the Parachute Regiment of the British Army arrested and detained people suspected to be members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), which opposed the British rule. This was part of the army’s rounding up of suspects for internment without trial in Republican districts across the country. About 3,600 people were killed in the conflict between the IRA, pro-British “loyalist” paramilitary and the British Army by the time it ended with the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. The events of these three days are known by the survivors as the Ballymurphy massacre. While inquests had been conducted in 1972, they were dismissed as inadequate by the victims’ relatives, and fresh inquests were opened in 2018.
While nine of the 10 victims, all found to have been innocent, were found by the coroner Justice Siobhan Keegan to have been killed by British soldiers using unjustified force, the perpetrator in the tenth death, that of John McKerr, could not be ascertained. The British Army had claimed that a few victims had been armed and shooting, which was the reason the soldiers opened fire. Keegan said the shootings were not proved to have been justified and that “clearly disproportionate” force was used in the nine deaths at the hands of the army.
Louise Haigh, Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, said:
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Brandon Lewis echoed Haigh’s statement and said:
Also on Tuesday, the British government said it plans to introduce legislation to protect veterans who served during the sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland from prosecution, giving rise to concerns of blanket amnesty for crimes. Victims’ families have said they would not accept such a measure. The British government also said that prosecutions over the violence committed during the conflict have little possibility of resulting in convictions. It has been reported that all prosecutions over incidents that occurred prior to the 1998 agreement would be excluded by a statute of limitations, applicable both to former British Army soldiers and paratroopers. Former UK Prime Minister Theresa May told the House of Commons, “The argument for the protection of veterans has consistently failed to understand one basic point—you cannot legislate simply to protect British soldiers from prosecution; any legislation to protect British soldiers will cover terrorists as well.”
While no one has ever been charged over the killings, a former paratrooper, identified as M3, may now face prosecution over the killing of Edward Doherty on the second day of the violence, after he admitted before Keegan that he had fired the shot that killed Doherty.
The post Northern Ireland inquests into ‘Troubles’ deaths conclude British Army used ‘clearly disproportionate’ force appeared first on JURIST - News - Legal News & Commentary.
Continue reading...
Note: We don't have any responsibilities about this news. Its been posted here by Feed Reader and we had no controls and checking on it. And because News posted here will be deleted automatically after 21 days, threads are closed so that no one spend time to post and discuss here. You can always check the source and discuss in their site.