Bloody Sunday Relative to take part in protest walk against Raytheon and the Fallujah massacre.

national | miscellaneous | news report Thursday May 08, 2003 23:20 by FEICer - FEIC feicmail at yahoo dot ie

FEIC Protest and Vigil, Saturday 10 May.

This Saturday, Tony Doherty, whose father Patrick was killed on Bloody Sunday, is to take part in a walk from the Bloody Sunday monument to the monthly vigil outside Raytheon, to protest the killing by US Parachuters of 13 innocent protesters in the Iraqi town of Fallujah. The massacre, which took place on Monday April 28th outside the school that the 82nd Airborne Division were occupying, was later justified by an official US military cover story. The story claimed that soldiers had come under fire, and that they had only fired aimed shots at gunmen. The walk is organized by the Foyle Ethical Investment Campaign as part of the campaign against the arms trade and its presence in Derry, in the form of Raytheon.

This Saturday, Tony Doherty, whose father Patrick was killed on Bloody Sunday, is to take part in a walk from the Bloody Sunday monument to the monthly vigil outside Raytheon, to protest the killing by US Parachuters of 13 innocent protesters in the Iraqi town of Fallujah. The massacre, which took place on Monday April 28th outside the school that the 82nd Airborne Division (the "Parachuters") were occupying, was later justified by an official US military cover story. The story claimed that soldiers had come under fire, and that they had only fired aimed shots at gunmen.

Doherty said: " I think the people of Derry know only too well what this sounds like and I am taking part in this walk as a gesture of solidarity with the families of those thirteen innocent civilians. I would urge anyone who can to do the same. The fact that US soldiers and military officials in Iraq can lie and think they can get away with it is in part due to the fact that the Paras got away with it here. This underlines both the importance of making the British Establishment accountable for its actions here, and of showing solidarity with the people of Iraq when they face similar circumstances at the hands of their occupiers."

Anti arms trade group FEIC (Foyle Ethical Investment Campaign) has organised the walk to draw attention to the bitter parallels between the situation facing the people of Iraq under the illegal US occupation, and that which faced the people of Derry when Paratroopers were deployed in this City in 1972. "US Paratroopers enforcing the illegal occupation of Iraq are using murder, terror and intimidation to do so, and then lying to cover up what they did" said Shane O'Curry of FEIC.

He added: "One of the biggest lies the US administration made up to justify its illegal actions was that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. We now all know this to have been a lie. The only makers of weapons of mass destruction in that conflict is the British and US Military Industrial Complex, in which Raytheon is a key player. It is the likes of Raytheon, through their sales of Cluster Bombs, Daisy Cutters, Depleted Uranium-Tipped Patriots, Cruise, Hellfire and Sidewinder Missiles, who are responsible for the overwhelming majority of the dead in Iraq. This is the same company that actually boasted that it was "delighted with the performance" of the missile which killed 62 People in Baghdad on March 29. The people of Derry were duped into accepting Raytheon in this City without being made aware of their record. The economic justifications used for accepting Raytheon are part of the same ideology which drove the US-UK "Coalition" in to capture Iraq's oilfields. The people of Derry have felt the sharp edge of both the economic and military sides of that ideology."

Tony Doherty said: " It is high time Raytheon packed up and went and stopped using the people of Derry as fodder in their sordid games, enough people have suffered already,"

If you would like to take part in the walk please meet up at the Bloody Sunday monument this Saturday 10 May at 4pm. Vigil outside Raytheon, Branch Road 5pm.