Learn from the past

THE EDITOR, Sir:

Happily, the public has been provided with a discussion draft of the terms of reference for the commission of enquiry into the Tivoli Gardens military-led operation in May 2010.

As the submissions made by the public are being considered, it may be advisable to learn from the mistakes of others as it relates to the conduct of these types of investigations.

For instance, there has been much study by the British in respect of the mistakes they made in investigating what has come to be known as Bloody Sunday.

Bloody Sunday took place in 1972 in Northern Ireland when the British army shot 26 unarmed civil-rights protesters and bystanders. Thirteen subsequently died.

Some four weeks after the killings and amid tremendous public pressure in Northern Ireland, England, and elsewhere, the British government convened an enquiry under the sole chair of their Lord Chief Justice, Lord Widgery, a former army brigadier.

This Widgery tribunal report, which cleared the British soldiers and British authorities of blame, did not find favour with the majority of the British public. In 1998, another enquiry was convened, chaired by Lord Saville, and which found that the killings were 'unjustified and unjustifiable', whereas the Widgery report had accepted the soldiers' accounts that they had been fired on and that they had returned fire.

I now wish to recommend to those who are tasked with the convening and eventually serving on the Tivoli enquiry to read up on Bloody Sunday (bbc.co.uk &/widgery_tribunal) and also an exceptionally brilliant report done by Professor Dermot Walsh on the Bloody Sunday Tribunal of Inquiry (cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/bsunday/walsh htm).

Professor Walsh's very comprehensive report is a must-read for those wishing to conduct a truly meaningful Tivoli enquiry, especially as it relates to the reliance on army evidence and the importance of accountability.

Allan Douglas

Retired Colonel

Kingston 10