Bodies claim rejected at inquiry

A Bloody Sunday anniversary march in Londonderry

Military claims that the IRA "spirited away" the bodies of members shot dead during gun battles, have been rejected at the Bloody Sunday inquiry.

The inquiry was ordered by Prime Minister Tony Blair to investigate circumstances surrounding the shooting dead of 13 unarmed civilians participating in a civil rights march in January 1972.

A fourteenth person died later from his wounds.

On Wednesday, a lawyer for relatives of the Bloody Sunday victims said the speculation, which circulated in Army circles when soldiers believed they had shot a gunman but no death or injury was heard of, showed a complete failure of the Army to understand Irish republicanism.

'Concealing a death'

Arthur Harvey QC told the tribunal in Londonderry's Guildhall: "Republicanism has never found any shame in the death of one of its members."

"Far from spiriting away dead bodies, the Irish Republican Army and the Republican movement have always honoured their dead."

Mr Harvey spoke of the difficulty of concealing a death in a society as small and parochial in Northern Ireland, where the total population was less than that of a decent-sized city in Great Britain.

The subject arose as Mr Harvey analysed a security assessment by Northern Ireland Commander of Land Forces in 1972, General Robert Ford, towards the end of January that year which reported that 15 IRA gunmen had been seen to fall since the start of the month.

Mr Harvey said: "If one is actually trying to preserve the morale of one's troops, it is a much more interesting matter to suggest that they are being much more successful in their attrition rate than in fact they are."

The Bloody Sunday inquiry has been sitting in the Guildhall, Londonderry, since March.

It is expected to last up to two years.

To date the inquiry has been taken up with the presentation of material amassed by the inquiry team.

The first two weeks of this new session which began on Monday are expected to see further opening submissions, after which it is expected the first witnesses will give evidence in public.