`Name all Bloody Sunday troops'

THREE DECADES of mistrust over what really happened on Bloody Sunday will not be healed if the new inquiry allows important details - such as the identity of soldiers involved - to be cloaked in secrecy, the High Court was told yesterday.

Arthur Harvey QC, representing eight of the families of people who were shot dead by members of The Parachute Regiment in January 1972, said public confidence in the impartiality of the latest inquiry into the shootings was in danger.

A previous inquiry - the Widgery Tribunal - into the events in Londonderry when 14 people were killed, had allowed the soldiers not to give their names. That decision had left "a festering wound which has continued over a long period of time".

The court heard the families' calls for the soldiers' names to be made public yesterday during a High Court case brought by the soldiers themselves. Seventeen men, most from The Parachute Regiment, have been called to give evidence to the new inquiry, to be chaired by Lord Saville of Newdigate.

The Saville Inquiry, due to open in September - has said it will not allow the soldiers to stay anonymous. Lawyers forthe soldiers have argued that if identified the soldiers would be at risk from possible revenge attacks. The hearing continues.