Bloody Sunday, Inquiry set to open on March 27
The way has been cleared for the opening of the Bloody Sunday inquiry in two weeks' time. An application which could have delayed the formal opening of the inquiry on March 27 has been withdrawn in the Belfast High Court. Lawyers for the families of the victims were due to seek leave to apply for a judicial review of the chairman, Lord Saville's refusal, to postpone the opening. It had been claimed that a "substantial body of the most relevant material" had not been disclosed to lawyers.
There were further claims today that British army chiefs in the North were proposing to take stern action against demonstrators in Derry several weeks before Bloody Sunday. According to reports in today's Guardian newspaper, a senior officer in Norhern Ireland recommended in a memo to his superior: "The minimum force necessary to restore law and order is to shoot selected ringleaders after clear warnings."
