Army didn't consider shooting marchers - General

The British Army had not been considering killing people for taking part in illegal marches, a retired Major General told the Bloody Sunday Inquiry today.

In a secret paper written three days before Bloody Sunday on January 30, 1972 when paratroopers shot dead 13 unarmed civil rights marchers in Derry, Maj Gen Henry Dalzell-Payne examined ways to enforce a ban on marches.

But the retired officer, who worked for the military operations branch concerned with Northern Ireland in January 1972, flatly denied the Army considered killing illegal marchers as a way to maintain law and order.

Under questioning from Arthur Harvey QC, representing most of the bereaved families, he told the inquiry, sitting in London: "We were not contemplating disperse or we fire – that was the last thing in the world we were going to do."

Senior officers wanted "firmer measures" to arrest hooligans, the inquiry heard.

They rejected a suggestion that more troops should be deployed into Northern Ireland so that sheer numbers would stop the marches beginning.

Mr Harvey suggested the paper reflected "military thinking in terms of applying martial law to civilian situations".

In the paper, written in anticipation that there would be trouble at the march that would trigger bad publicity for the Army, Maj Gen Dalzell-Payne wrote: "The only additional measure left for physical control is the use of firearms i.e. ‘disperse or we fire’.

"Inevitably it would not be the gunmen who would be killed but ‘innocent members of the crowd’.

"This would be a harsh and final step, tantamount to saying all else has failed and for this reason must be rejected except in extremis. It cannot, however, be ruled out."

Maj Gen Dalzell-Payne said that opening fire would been seen as a last resort in response to "our soldiers being killed at random".

In response to Mr Harvey’s questions, he said: "I fear that my paper was not clear enough in some respects and was open to various interpretations, one of which you have adopted."

His paper, complete with its recommendations for potential action that could be taken in the immediate future, was written for background, Maj Gen Dalzell-Payne said, adding that he had no operational involvement with Bloody Sunday.

Mr Harvey asked him: "Would you accept it would be wholly unconscionable in a western democratic society to shoot dead people for defying a ban on marches?"

He agreed.

Earlier Maj Gen Dalzell-Payne denied knowing that at least two units in Belfast had made requests to brigade headquarters for the Parachute Regiment to be kept out of their areas or that senior officers from those units had claimed their tactics were 'too rough'.

These claims were included in newspaper reports at the time.