Soldiers urged to 'get kills'

The inquiry is being held in Londonderry

A soldier has claimed an officer encouraged him and his colleagues to get "a few kills" the night before Bloody Sunday.

The claim is one of a number contained in a document before the tribunal of inquiry investigating the events of 30 January 1972 in Londonderry.

Paratroopers opened fire on people taking part in a banned civil rights march. Thirteen people were killed while a 14th person died afterwards as a result of injuries sustained on the day.

The inquiry being held in Londonderry's Guild Hall is now in its 32nd day and is still hearing the opening statement of counsel to the inquiry, Christopher Clarke QC.

The soldier, who was identified only as 027, was quoted as saying that colleagues "pumped off" rounds into the crowd, with one trooper wounding a man then finishing him off as he lay in the gutter.

Christopher Clarke QC: Counsel to inquiry

His account, dated November 1975, was contained in a confidential memo which may have been part of a newspaper archive and was contained in a dossier compiled by the Irish Government, according to Mr Clarke.

Soldier 027, who was a member of the anti-tank platoon of 1 Para's support battalion, also alleged that after the killings, the man who took his statement for the original 1972 inquiry headed by Lord Widgery, tore it up and then handed over another version of events to give to the hearings.

The account, apparently taken from a taped interview, described a sense of frustration and tension among the men resulting from the continued existence of no-go areas in Londonderry at the time.

The statement by 027 said the platoon's lieutenant had said the night before the march: "Let's teach these buggers a lesson. We want some kills tomorrow."

The document quotes 027 as saying this was understood as "tantamount to an order - an exoneration of all responsibility" by him and his colleagues.

The man, who was then a 20-year-old radio operator, was quoted as speaking of his colleagues shooting up Rossville Street and seeing two bodies fall across a rubble barricade there.

"I raised my rifle and aimed but on tracking across the people in front of me, could see women and children, although the majority were men, all wildly shouting, but could see no-one with a weapon, so I lowered my rifle," he said in his statement.

"I remember thinking, looking at my friends, `Do they know something I do not know? What are they firing at?'

"In the initial 30 seconds, I would say that 100 rounds were fired at the crowd"

Soldier "027"

"Opposite us I could see members of the machine-gun (platoon), helmeted and black-faced, in a standing position, also pumping off rounds at quite a rapid rate.

Inside Glenfada Park one of his colleagues, H, fired a shot from the hip, which passed through one man - killing him - and into another.

H then "moved forward and fired again, killing the wounded man", 027 said in the statement.

E killed another man and a fourth man was killed by either G or F, the statement added.

Banned bullets

"When we finally got into the "pig" [armoured personnel carrier] everyone including myself was laughing and joking on an intense wave of excitement as we worked out how many rounds we had fired," the account continued.

"Several of the blokes had fired their own personal supply of dum-dums. Inq 635 fired 10 dum-dums into the crowd but as he still had his official quota he got away with saying he never fired a shot."

Dum-dums are bullets which cause heavy damage to shooting victims and have been out-lawed internationally.

The soldier then detailed giving his statement to the Widgery Inquiry claiming that he had told "the truth that I wanted to convey".

O27 is then quoted as saying the man who took the statement from him said his evidence should not indicate he or his colleagues had fired into the crowd.

The soldier added that his statement was taken from him, torn up and replaced 10 minutes later by one "bearing no relation with fact" but, he was told, would be the one used when he took the stand.

John Heritage, who took the statement from 027 for the Widgery Inquiry, has described the soldier's claims as "a falsehood and total fabrication", it emerged later.

Mr Clarke read from a statement given by Mr Heritage which said: "I have never torn up or substituted a statement in my career.

The inquiry had earlier heard a statement from H who is on record as the soldier who fired the most shots on Bloody Sunday.

A colleague of 027 in the anti-tank platoon, Soldier H said he had fired 19 of his 22 shots at a sniper behind a window.

He also admitted shooting three times down an alley-way, hitting two demostrators.