Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 07:04:21 +0000
Subject: M-G: Paratroopers in Aden



Dear Comrades,

Below is an extract from the Workers Fight flyer for Bloody Sunday demo
in London. In the present excitement about the new inquiry I think it
would be apposite to inquire into the practices of One Para in its
immediatedly previous engagement, in Aden.

Do you have any information on contraversial incidents in that campaign
or perhaps you could point me to where that material could be found? I
could not find it on the Web. 

Thank you.

Gerry D


WorkersFIGHT

Troops Out Now!
Self-determination for the Irish People as a Whole!


Demonstrate for Troops out now! Self-determination for the Irish people
as a whole! Saturday, January 24th 1998. Assemble 12 PM, Highbury
Fields, opposite Highbury and Islington tube.

Nothing to apologise for ? 

Lt Col Derek Wilford, commander of  
One Para on Bloody Sunday, said on Channel 4 News on 19 January past
that his soldiers had nothing to apologise for. He went on, I think
the prime minister of the time should be the person who is discussing
it, frankly  What are they going to apologise for? Are they trying to
apologise on my behalf and my soldiers? I would have to warn (!) them
not to do so. They cannot apologise for me.' And then outrageously he
claimed that if the Paras had really run amok there would have been 
several dozen dead. Derrys bereaved relatives should not be
complaining but be grateful to them for their forbearance!!!! This
Nuremberg defence must be rejected with contempt -- mass murderers
cannot plead only carrying out orders.

But the relatives fight for justice has now forced Wilford to point the
finger at Edward Heath, the Tory prime minister of the time. Certainly
Heaths memorial tribute to Chinese Stalinist leader Deng Xiaoping, who
ordered the Tienanmen Square massacre, smacked of self-justification.
The warning above is clearly a threat to name names if the Paras are
scapegoated.

The entire tone of Wilfords interview inferred that this was a pre-
planned massacre to break the mass upsurge of the nationalist community
for simple equality and national rights. This had been the training and
practice of the British Army crack regiments in Malaysia, Cyprus,
Aden, etc. post war. However their crimes -- like the Robertsons jam
gollywogs pinned to the barrack notice boards for every Arab murdered
in Aden -- went largely unreported. In Derry the worlds press and
television witnessed. They should not be asked to apologise for their
crimes but made pay the penalty. The entire chain of command must pay,
right up to Heath himself. 

WF, Box 5, 46  Denmark Hill, London SE5 8RZ  

-- 
Gerry Downing


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