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http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,797750,00.html Appeal to soldiers for Bloody Sunday truth Rosie Cowan, Ireland correspondent Tuesday September 24, 2002 The Guardian -"It is our hope that the 300 military witnesses, one of whom is my brother's murderer, who will give evidence here in London will do so openly and honestly. The brother of a man killed on Bloody Sunday yesterday appealed to the soldier who killed him to finally tell the truth about what happened 30 years ago in Derry, as the tribunal moves to London today. Lord Saville's new inquiry into the deaths of 14 unarmed Catholic men shot dead by paratroopers during a civil rights march in the Bogside on January 30 1972 has already questioned 571 people, including police, journalists and forensic experts, but mainly civilian witnesses, in Derry's Guildhall over two and a half years. It is today relocating to Methodist Central Hall, Westminster, where it will sit for up to a year, to hear evidence from around 300 soldiers who were in Derry that day, plus military commanders and senior politicians involved in decisions before and after Bloody Sunday. The move is a result of a lengthy legal battle, as the relatives of the dead wanted the soldiers to return to Derry, but the Ministry of Defence successfully argued that they would be at risk from terrorists there. The soldiers, apart from a few senior figures, also won their case to retain anonymity. But about 30 relatives who will travel to and from London on a regular basis will be able to face in open court the men who killed their loved ones. They see this as the real start of the inquiry, where the soldiers will have the chance to come clean about what they did and who ordered them to do it. John Kelly, whose 17-year-old brother Michael died on Bloody Sunday, said at a press conference in the Commons yesterday: "It is our hope that the 300 military witnesses, one of whom is my brother's murderer, who will give evidence here in London will do so openly and honestly. "To you, British soldiers who were allowed to lie in 1972, I say the only one you have hidden from is yourself. You have nothing to fear from us. Let us take some good from the terrible legacy you have left behind in Ireland since January 1972, since Bloody Sunday. By helping establish the truth about Bloody Sunday you can play your part in building genuine reconciliation between the people of Ireland and Britain." Soldier F, the man who shot Michael Kelly, told the Widgery tribunal in 1972 that he fired at a man carrying a "fizzing object" he took to be a bomb. It was claims like this and Widgery's conclusion that many of the victims were carrying guns or bombs, that infuriated their relatives and led to a relentless campaign for a new inquiry, which was finally sanctioned by Tony Blair. It has attracted criticism for its costs, currently �70m and which could rise to �200m by the time Lord Saville issues his final report in 2004. But relatives see it as the price the government must pay for not telling the truth at the time. Mr Kelly said: "My brother Michael was neither a gunman nor a bomber. He was just an ordinary young man doing his civic duty by protesting against British human rights abuses." Today, the inquiry will hear from Brigadier Sir Frank Kitson, the Belfast army commander who sent 1 Para to Derry on the orders of General Sir Robert Ford, the commander of land forces in Northern Ireland, who will also testify in the coming weeks, as will the commander of 1 Para, Lieutenant Colonel Derek Wilford. On Thursday, lawyers for the families will press Lieutenant Colonel Colin Overbury, who headed the army's Widgery team and later became a senior legal officer at the European commission, on allegations that he supervised a cover-up of the killings. Next week, the inquiry will hear the strange story of army secretary "Inq 1872", who lost an arm on the last night of the Widgery tribunal, when lawyers out with soldiers in the Bogside got caught in a shoot-out with the IRA. Politicians due to testify in London include the then prime minister, Sir Edward Heath; defence minister Lord Carrington; and former army minister Sir Geoffrey Johnson Smith. The inquiry will return to Derry from time to time to hear other civilian witnesses, including Martin McGuinness, who was the IRA's second-in-command in Derry at the time of Bloody Sunday but insists the Provisionals took all their guns out of the Bogside before the march. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? 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