STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG

Daily Telegraph (UK)
ISSUE 1730Saturday 19 February 2000
Bloody Sunday rifles go missing
By Jon Hibbs, Political Correspondent

 
THE Bloody Sunday inquiry expressed "grave concern" last night at the
admission by the Ministry of Defence that the Army had disposed of two
of the rifles used by soldiers in the 1972 killings.
Nationalist politicians and relatives of the 14 people shot dead claimed
the weapons had been deliberately destroyed to frustrate the official
inquiry, which starts public hearings in Londonderry next month.
The inquiry team, headed by Lord Saville, demanded an explanation
because it had been given prior assurances by the MoD that the five
remaining rifles would all be preserved as evidence. Geoff Hoon, the
Defence Secretary, said the unauthorised disposal was a matter of "deep
regret" and ordered an investigation by MoD police, in which he invited
a representative from the inquiry to be an observer.
The disappearance of the rifles came to light after the inquiry asked
the MoD to locate the 29 weapons thought to have been fired in
Londonderry on Bloody Sunday. That type of self-loading rifle was taken
out of service in November 1997, and by the time the inquiry request had
been made, 14 had been destroyed and another 10 sold to private
companies.
Mr Hoon said in a writen Commons answer: "Despite an embargo on the
movement of the remaining five, two of these rifles were destroyed on
Jan 26 and 28, 2000." He assured MPs that the the remaining three rifles
had been secured, although a spokesman for the inquiry said it would be
asking the Defence Secretary to try to locate the 10 weapons that were
sold.
Gregory McCartney, solicitor of the family of Jimmy Wray, one of those
killed in the shootings, said: "This could not have happened
accidentally."