[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 34 (Monday, March 17, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2375-S2376]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                       BLOODY SUNDAY ANNIVERSARY

 Mr. TORRICELLI. Mr. President, I rise today to commemorate an 
important event which took place on January 30 of this year. This day 
marked the 25th anniversary of Bloody Sunday which left 14 civil rights 
marchers dead in Northern Ireland.
  During the late 1960's, peaceful opposition to disenfranchisement, 
internment and anti-Catholic discrimination in Northern Ireland led to 
large protest marches throughout the region. On January 30, 1972, one 
of these peaceful protest marches was indiscriminately fired upon by a 
British regiment. Fourteen demonstrators were killed during the 
violence.
  The investigation conducted by Lord Widgery, and the subsequent 
Widgery Report, were conclusive. All of the victims were unarmed, and 
most were shot in the back, leaving the world to conclude that the 
killings were reckless. However, not a single British soldier was ever 
prosecuted for this crime.
  The victims sought only to establish the rights of equal citizens, 
but paid the ultimate price for challenging British authority. However, 
the perpetrators go unpunished, and the British Government continue to 
ignore the seriousness of the crime committed 25 years ago.
  I urge the British Government to recognize the innocence of the 
demonstrators who were killed or injured on

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Bloody Sunday, and work toward establishing justice for them and their 
families. The struggle for justice continues today in Northern Ireland, 
and the British should work to repair the rift in Protestant-Catholic 
relations.

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