New eyewitnesses accounts of the shootings of 11 people by British soldiers in Northern Ireland were submitted to the Attorney General's office today in a bid to get fresh inquests opened.
The statements form part of an extensive file of information related to the Ballymurphy massacre in west Belfast that has been compiled by the victims‘ families.
Archive testimony of the 1971 killings collected by the Catholic Church and full autopsy reports are also included in the submission to John Larkin QC.
The families are dissatisfied with the open verdicts delivered in the original inquests, held in the wake of the controversial shootings by British paratroopers, and have asked Mr Larkin to establish a new investigation.
The call comes as the relatives continue to demand an independent international investigation into the events of August 1971, when the Army stormed the nationalist area after the Northern Ireland government introduced the contentious policy of internment without trial.
A Catholic priest and a mother of eight were among the 11 shot dead during a three day operation that was designed to round up suspected republican paramilitaries.
The killings happened only months before soldiers from the Parachute Regiment shot dead 14 civil rights marchers in Derry in 1972.
Briege Voyle, whose mother Joan Connolly was killed in Ballymurphy, expressed hope that the file contained enough evidence to persuade Mr Larkin.
“Some of this was available at the time of our loved ones’ murders and was not considered or investigated,” she said.
“The families for over the last 20 years have collected information from eyewitnesses to the massacre along with full autopsy reports that were previously withheld from the families, and hope that the attorney general may open the inquest into the death of our loved ones and consider investigating the circumstances around their murder and conclude that they were brutally murdered.”
“This is only another step in the long process in the hope of acquiring an independent international investigation into the murder of our loved ones.”
The relatives have stopped short of demanding a probe along the lines of the costly Bloody Sunday Inquiry that led to an apology from Prime Minister David Cameron.
In July the Catholic Church, which is backing the families‘ campaign, released previously undisclosed files clergy had put together on the shootings.
Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams was among the delegation that handed the submission to the attorney general‘s office in Belfast this morning.
The West Belfast MP said the appointment of the region‘s first attorney general in 38 years — Mr Larkin took up post this year following the devolution of policing and justice powers to Stormont — had enabled the legal bid.
“The accounts of how the 11 died bears a striking similarity to the stories told by the Bloody Sunday families,” said Mr Adams.
“The families have spent years carrying out their own inquiries into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of their loved ones.
“They believe that not all of the facts pertaining to the shootings were made known or that the RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary) or British Army’s Military Police properly investigated the killings.
“They also have grave concerns about the inquests that were carried out.” He added: “The Ballymurphy families have been campaigning for justice for many years.
“They want an independent international investigation into the deaths of their loved ones and an apology from the British government which recognises their innocence.
“They believe that new inquests, which are Article 2 (European Convention’s right to life) compliant, will help prove that their loved ones are innocent, were murdered and that an independent international investigation is required.”
A spokesman for Mr Larkin confirmed the submission had been received and said the Attorney General would now take time to review it.
PA