Saville report security concerns 'bogus': SF's McCartney

National security concerns over the Bloody Sunday report are bogus and disingenuous, it was claimed tonight.

Sinn Féin MLA Raymond McCartney said the British government should have published Mark Saville’s mammoth findings before the suspension of the British Parliament.

The next government will have to deal with the £200m (€226m) probe’s conclusions after the May 6 poll.

Mr McCartney said the families of the 14 men shot dead by British soldiers were frustrated at the continued delays.

“The British government spurned the opportunity to do the right thing for what can only be described as partisan and sectional considerations,” he said.

Relatives of the dead men, civil rights protesters shot dead by paratroopers in Derry in January 1972, believe Mark Saville could have been trusted not to endanger the "right-to-life" of soldiers or other witnesses, which he had already done throughout the long inquiry.

Mr McCartney added: “Any suggestion that Lord Saville would not have given due regard to so-called British national interest concerns is in my opinion disingenuous and bogus.”

He said the delay until after the British General Election gave a distinct advantage to the British state and its agencies, which received the report from Lord Saville late last month despite families’ concerns about the leaking or other manipulation of the material.

He said there had been no suggestion of a breach of right-to-life considerations.

“It is in this context that the families express their anger, their frustration and their disappointment, all of which in my opinion and I hope in other people’s opinion is totally and absolutely justified,” he said.

It has been 12 years since former British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced the inquiry. Families had pressed for Lord Saville’s report to be published immediately upon its completion. However Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward said he would not be fulfilling his legal responsibility to protect life were he to do so.

Unionists have criticised the cost of the inquiry’s legal bill and pointed to other victims who claims to justice they see as equally valid.

East Derry MP Gregory Campbell said: “However painful it may be, and however many times revisionism has to rear its ugly head, it has to be confronted head on, confronted, defied and defeated.”

He said republicans were trying to indicate that Bloody Sunday provided the spark for 30 years of conflict.

“That negates and disposes of all the violence and murder that preceded the events of January 30,” he added.

SDLP Foyle MP Mark Durkan said he shared the families’ concerns and pressed for speedy disclosure.