Bloody Sunday report postponement confirmed

After weeks of spin and damage control, British Direct Ruler Shaun Woodward has confirmed a further delay in the 38 year campaign for truth and justice by the relatives of those killed and injured on Bloody Sunday.

The report of the Bloody Sunday inquiry will not be released until after the formation of a new British government, he confirmed.

On January 30, 1972, known as ‘Bloody Sunday’, British Army paratroopers massacred 14 Irish civil rights demonstrators.

British military intelligence (MI5) has been blamed for delaying publication of the Saville report until after next month’s Westminster election. It said it required “security checks” which the families described as a “waste of time”.

Despite the time spent poring over it for potential breaches of British state security, it emerged that none of the long-awaited report will be censored.

John Kelly, whose 17-year-old brother Michael was killed on Bloody Sunday, strongly criticised the latest delay.

“There is now every possibility that a Tory government will be In place when the report Is handed over and it should be remembered that it was a Tory government which was in control at the time of Bloody Sunday,” he said.

“We don’t know what they will decide to do. Will a new secretary of state honour the commitments given by Shaun Woodward?”

He said families could easily have seen the report before the election without the “totally unnecessary” checks.

“We were so close to receiving the report, almost at the finishing line, and now we will be made to wait even longer,” he said.

“The finger must be pointed at Shaun Woodward for the most recent delay as he insisted on these security checks - checks which we believed were totally unnecessary in the first place.

“In the aftermath of these security checks we have been informed that there were no redactions made to the report and that no information relating to national security was removed.

“We have been told that this means that the report will remain intact and families will see it as Lord Saville wrote it. However, it also reinforces the fact that these security checks were a complete and utter waste of time.”

He called on any new administration to “make the publication of the report a priority”.

“Families have waited long enough and it is time to let the world see the report and set the truth free.”

Urgent Appeal