Photograph taken on Bloody Sunday, 1972
Photograph taken on Bloody Sunday, 1972
The families of civilians killed and injured
by British soldiers on Bloody Sunday have slammed the offer of a
$77,000 (€58,000) compensation package from the British government.
In
January 1972, British paratroopers opened fired on innocent civil
rights marchers and 14 were killed. After a lengthy inquiry into the
matter the Saville Report was published in June 2010. Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron subsequently apologized
to the families of the victims in Parliament. The report which took
12-years to complete was heavily critical of the British army and found
that soldiers killed people without justification.
Of
the 26 civilians who were shot that day thirteen died, one died a few
months later and the others survived. Victim’s families been offered
$77,400 each as part of the family’s $2 million compensation package
provided by the British Ministry of Defense.
Kate Nash, whose brother William was killed and father Alex was injured, told the Sun newspaper: “My brother cannot be replaced and all the money in the world won’t bring him back.”
Nash said she is interested in accountability and not money.
A solicitor for one of the families said the $77,400 offer was derisory and an insult.
A spokesperson for the Belfast-based law firm Madden and Finucane, representing many of the Bloody Sunday relatives, told TheJournal.ie: “Negotiations in respect of compensation are continuing with the MoD and their legal representatives.”
“The
contents of those negotiations shall remain confidential between the
families of those murdered and the wounded whom we represent and the
MoD.
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