Republican News · Thursday 9 January 2003

Papers reveal Para brutality days before massacre

BY FERN LANE

Papers released under the 30-year rule have confirmed that then British prime minister Edward Heath was warned just days before Bloody Sunday by the Cabinet Secretary Sir Burke Trend that the Paras had "overreacted" against civil rights protestors.

Four days before Bloody Sunday, Heath received a security briefing in which Trend remarked that "you may wish to question the Secretary of State for defence about recent suggestions in the press and on television that the army overreacted against some of the civil rights demonstrations last weekend - And that, in particular, soldiers of the Parachute Regiment, by being unnecessarily rough, have gratuitously provoked resentment among peaceful elements of the Roman Catholic population."

Trend also writes about the issue of the how crown forces are to respond to increasing civil disobedience. "Are we able - and prepared - to deal with that situation?" he asks. He recommends that the question should be "explored urgently" with Brian Faulker during a forthcoming meeting, but the record of that meeting has not been released.

The papers also reveal that Heath intervened in the Widgery Inquiry to ensure that British Army witnesses would be called to give their evidence first. On 7 February, a letter from Downing Street to the MoD expresses Heath's concern that the British government and army would face a propaganda setback if civilian witnesses were heard first. "There might be a lot to be said for the army to be given an opportunity to set out its own facts early on," said the letter. "The Prime Minister would be grateful if urgent consideration could be given to this point."

After a delay due to a fall, Edward Heath is scheduled to begin his evidence to the Inquiry shortly after it reconvenes on 13 January.

In a separate development, Lord Saville has rejected an application by MI5 to prevent two of its officers and the whistleblower David Shayler - recently released from prison after being convicted last November of breaching the Official Secrets Act - from giving live evidence to the inquiry. The security services had asked that a time-delay restriction be imposed when the three give their evidence. Such a restriction would have meant that legal representatives of the families, or indeed the soldiers themselves, could not cross-examine the witnesses.