Law Lord Facing Clash on Revealing Bloody Sunday Names Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit The Times (London) June 11 1999 Law lord facing clash on Bloody Sunday names BY TIM JONES THE law lord who will head the Bloody Sunday inquiry was accused yesterday of deliberately placing the lives of soldiers at risk by insisting that they should be named. The accusation by Ian Burnett, QC, acting on behalf of George Robertson, the Defence Secretary, will lead the Government into a clash with Lord Saville of Newdigate, who is to open the inquiry in September. Mr Burnett, speaking in the High Court, said: "At the very heart of this decision is that the soldiers will be at the risk of death if they are named. Yet the tribunal has showed unwillingness to give the slightest protection anonymity would afford. "Therefore, it is deliberately choosing to place those who appear before it at risk of injury or death. This is unique in the annals of British justice." His accusation that the 17 soldiers who opened fire during the civil rights march in Londonderry in 1972 could be the target of revenge attacks was backed by Sydney Kent-ridge, QC, for the men. Mr Kentridge said that Lord Saville had been "far too cavalier" in withdrawing their anonymity and accused him of being "dismissive of their right to life". He said that ever since the original inquiry by Lord Widgery in 1972 the soldiers and their families had lived their lives on the basis they had a certain and not unimportant measure of security against reprisal. "That has been important to them and their families and now, on the basis of this decision, it has simply been whipped away." Although passions had died down, Mr Kentridge said, the tribunal, which will begin hearing evidence in Londonderry, had ignored the dangers of naming the soldiers, who had come from mainly the parachute regiment. He said: "There is the obvious likelihood that when the terrible events are rehearsed in the open in Northern Ireland, feelings may again run high when soldiers in the witness box admit they fired shots which killed someone or fired into the crowd. "These feelings of anger are going to be exacerbated. I am not talking about relatives or highly disciplined organisations, but there are unreconciled individuals still capable of making attacks on soldiers in Great Britain." Even now, security forces assessed there was a moderate risk of them being subject to reprisals. The Saville inquiry, he said, had initially accepted that the men's fears for their lives were genuine when it had decided last December to allow them a limited form of protection in that only their surnames would be published. Four of the men successfully challenged that decision at the High Court in March and, later, in backing their application, three Court of Appeal judges had ordered the tribunal to reconsider. This, Mr Kentridge said, had led to the tribunal making an unreasonable decision that the soldiers should give their full names unless individuals could give special reasons for anonymity. The tribunal, he said, had decided that the search for the truth of what happened on Bloody Sunday should be thorough and open and that this factor should outweigh any potential danger to life. Mr Kentridge said that the tribunal had "gone badly wrong" in making its decision and had undermined the soldiers' fundamental right to life. "This is not a case about procedure, nor is it a case about the balance of convenience. It is about human life and the potential danger to life - the life of each soldier and of his family members." The case continues. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytire-06.16.99-03:42:49-9686