Colum Eastwood repeats claim ‘soldiers sent in to murder’ on Bloody Sunday

Speaking on BBC Radio Foyle on Monday, Mr Eastwood also said that the government’s ‘amnesty’ legislation will not be introduced before the NI Assembly election in May.

Thirteen people were killed on 30 January 1972 when soldiers from the Parachute Regiment opened fire on civil rights marchers. A fourteenth victim died months later.

The proposals put forward by NI Secretary Brandon Lewis include a ‘statute of limitations’ which has been widely interpreted as an effective amnesty that would benefit former terrorists as well as former members of the security forces.

The provisions of the bill will also end all legacy inquests and Troubles-related civil actions.

Echoing comments he made in the Commons last week, Mr Eastwood said: “Remember what they were doing – they were marching for civil rights. They were just marching for basic decency and to be treated properly, and many of them running away, or crawling on the ground, or shot in the back or shot with their hands up.”

“That is the nature of the people who were sent in to the Bogside that day to murder our citizens.”

Mr Eastwood said the legacy bill as proposed would “close down any route to truth and justice,” and that the Bloody Sunday families will continue to seek prosecutions.

“I think it has to go on, and I think it has to go on for families right across the north, because it is just an affront to decency and democracy and the rule of law, that any government would attempt to bring in what is an amnesty for all perpetrators and against all victims.

“You wouldn’t have a Bloody Sunday Inquiry, which was so necessary to set the truth free, under these proposals. These people wouldn’t even be entitled to a judicial review, any decision by the government, they wouldn’t be entitled to an inquest.

“Now, the proposal seems to have been put on the back burner, and I think that is largely because the British Government know that this is fundamentally illegal and will end up in court for many years.

“It’s not about living in the past and raking up old issues – it’s actually about allowing us to move forward in a way that is decent, because we can’t move foward properly, or reconcile properly, until we face up to what happened here.”

Commenting on the lack of unionist representation at the main commemoration on Sunday, the Foyle MP said that any politician “should be able to stand” with the bereaved families.

“I genuinely don’t understand how every politician can’t stand with the families of 14 people who murdered on our streets.”

He added: “Any politician should be able to stand with them.”

READ: Guarded welcome for ‘amnesty’ bill after veterans meet Brandon Lewis in London

READ: As Legacy bill stalls, military veterans feel ‘abused and abandoned’

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