╥That is it: there isn╒t any solution now,╙ said the man at Rossville flats. He stared across at the crowds milling around the familiar debris of Londonderry ╤ hundreds of them, scarcely talking to each other as they shuffled their feet in the biting wind.
Some of them say they expected Sunday╒s events to occur sooner or later: now it has happened. It simply sets the seal on their final withdrawal from the Northern Ireland State.
The Army is presenting its case in Belfast and London: here the people are certain about what happened to them. Every single Bogsider, and every person who took part in Sunday╒s march, says there were no shots at the Army, no nail bombs, and no petrol bombs. They maintain the absolute innocence of all the dead, and say the soldiers came in firing at anything that moved.
The whole Roman Catholic section of the city was virtually at a standstill yesterday after a three-day strike had been called. All shops west of the river Foyle were closed, except for the occasional kiosk and food shop, and virtually all Roman Catholic workers in the city stayed away from work, or returned home soon after going.
In the daylight, police and troops kept clear of the Bogside, and police in the town centre patrolled in small groups after the IRA warning that it would avenge the 13 dead.
A group of seven Catholic priests said in a statement that they accused the Colonel of the Parachute Regiment of ╥wilful murder╙ and General Ford, Commander of Land Forces, of being an accessory before the fact.
╥We accuse the soldiers of shooting indiscriminately into a fleeing crowd, of gloating over casualties, and of preventing medical and spiritual aid from reaching some of the dying,╙ they said. The priests called the paratroopers ╥trained criminals who differ from terrorists only in the air of respectability that a uniform gives them.╙
In a community hall in the Bogside, members of 11 of the families who lost sons, brothers, or fathers on Sunday, described their experiences. Most said they had left the march to go home before the shooting started, and some did not know their relatives were dead until they saw their bodies in the Londonderry morgue.
The Bogsiders now accuse the Army of certain specific atrocities: they say men were shot as they ran with their hands in the air seeking shelter; they say people who were tending wounded men were fired upon╒ and they say that in some cases men were shot after they had been arrested. They add that they believe soldiers tried to prevent ambulances from getting into the area of the fighting, and that the ambulances were fired on as they arrived.
The meeting of relatives was tense and bitter. Occasionally, one of the people began to weep. They applauded loudly the most militant statements. They made it clear that they would not cooperate with any ╥British╙ inquiry, which they said would be designed to whitewash the Army. They said they would only cooperate with an inquiry set up under the United Nations or another international body from which both British and Irish representatives had been excluded.
Mr Tony Martin, a ship rigger from Manchester who now lives in Derry, said soldiers had fired on himself and a group of about 15 other men who had gone to tend the wounded near Abbey Park. ╥We saw four wounded people lying at the end of a patch of waste ground,╙ he said.
╥We put our hands in the air to show we were unarmed and waved white handkerchiefs. We managed to walk as far as where the people were lying. Then a soldier opened up with a machine gun. One man was shot in the leg, and another had a scalp wound. We had to lie on top of the bodies of the wounded.╙
Mr John McDaid, whose brother Michael, aged 20, died, said: ╥I went to the morgue because my brother had not come home. The police told me his name was not on the list, but when I got home a priest came to the front door. When I went back to the morgue, I saw my brother. There was a triangular wound on his cheek, and the back of his head was matted with blood.
╥I have been round to Rossville flats to talk to people who saw him shot. They said he was shot from five yards away with his hands in the air.╙
Mr John Kelly, whose son Michael, aged 17, was killed, said: ╥I was standing outside Rossville flats watching the Army and the boys fighting. Then the Saracens came up the street. They were firing rubber bullets and gas. Then more Saracens came up behind them, and the soldiers ran out and threw themselves on the ground and just began shooting. I ran across the street and saw a man who was shot in the stomach.╙
Mr James Rea lost his son, Jim, aged 22. ╥I and the rest of the family had gone home after the march arrived at the barrier,╙ he said. But when Jim had not returned, I went back to find him. When the shooting started, I could hear people shouting ╘It╒s only rubber bullets.╒ I think some people did not realise they were using lead bullets.╙
Lieutenant Colonel Derek Wilford, the paratroopers commanding officer, last night gave his own version: ╥We moved very quickly when the firing started. Their shots were highly inaccurate. I believe in fact they lost their nerve when they saw us coming in.
╥Nail bombs were thrown and one man who was shot was seen to be lighting a bomb as he was shot. This is open to conjecture, but I personally saw a man with an M1 carbine rifle on the balcony of a flat. I don╒t believe people were shot in the back while they were running away. A lot of us do think that some of the people were shot by their own indiscriminate firing.
