Cameron apologises for Bloody Sunday massacre

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British Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday apologised for the Bloody Sunday massacre of January 1972 in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, by British soldiers in which 13 demonstrators taking part in a civil rights protest were killed.
Thirty-eight years after the Bloody Sunday massacre in Northern Ireland, Mr Cameron, in a statement in the House of Commons, said: “For that (the conduct of the armed forces), on behalf of the government — and indeed our country — I am deeply sorry.”
The Saville investigation, which was set up in January 1998 by then Prime Minister Tony Blair, presented its findings on Tuesday in 10 volumes comprising of 5,000 pages. The inquiry cost more than £190.1 million and took 12 years to complete.
The investigation led by Lord Saville found that the demonstrators were innocent and the British soldiers were to blame for opening fire on the protest rally. Fourteen people were injured on that day and one of the injured had died later.
“The immediate responsibility for the deaths and injuries on Bloody Sunday lies with those members of Support Company whose unjustifiable firing was the cause of the those deaths and injuries,” the inquiry said.
The investigation found that the first shot in the vicinity of the march was fired by the British Army, “none of the casualties shot by the soldiers was armed with a firearm,” and “in no case was any warning given before soldiers opened fire.” The inquiry has brought the long history of terrorism in Northern Ireland to the forefront. More than 3,500 people died in Northern Ireland, the overwhelming majority killed by terrorists. Mr Cameron said the Bloody Sunday killings were unjustified, unjustifiable and totally wrong. “I am deeply patriotic. I never want to believe anything bad about our country. I never want to call into question the behaviour of our soldiers and our Army who I believe to be the finest in the world. And I have seen for myself the very difficult and dangerous circumstances in which we ask our soldiers to serve. But the conclusions of this report are absolutely clear. There is no doubt. There is nothing equivocal. There are no ambiguities. What happened on Bloody Sunday was both unjustified and unjustifiable. It was wrong,” he told the House of Commons.
“I know some people wonder whether nearly forty years on from an event, a Prime Minister needs to issue an apology. For someone of my generation, this is a period we feel we have learned about rather than lived through. But what happened should never, ever have happened,” the Prime Minister added.