Liverpool fans were not to blame
Tributes on Wednesday night on the gates at Anfield Stadium in Liverpool, northern England. British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Wednesday that he was 'profoundly sorry' for failures and cover-ups in the wake of the 1989 Hillsborough soccer disaster in which 96 spectators died after a crowd crush in the stadium. Tributes on Wednesday night on the gates at Anfield Stadium in Liverpool, northern England. British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Wednesday that he was 'profoundly sorry' for failures and cover-ups in the wake of the 1989 Hillsborough soccer disaster in which 96 spectators died after a crowd crush in the stadium.
London - British police and medics whose failures contributed to the deaths of 96 soccer fans in the country’s worst sports disaster unfairly blamed the dead for the 1989 tragedy and sought to cover up their actions, newly disclosed documents revealed on Wednesday.
The documents vindicated efforts by the victims’ families, who had spent 23 years demanding a full account of the events at Hillsborough Stadium that killed fans of the Liverpool soccer team.
Most of the victims were crushed and suffocated in a standing-only section after they were herded there by police.
Prime Minister David Cameron issued an apology yesterday for the wrongdoing of authorities and the subsequent cover-up, saying Britain had been shamed for more than 20 years by its reluctance to expose the errors that led to the deaths.
Lawmakers in the House of Commons gasped and wept as he spoke.
Relatives of the dead had suffered the “failure of the state to protect their loved ones and the indefensible wait to get to the truth – and the injustice of the denigration of the deceased, that they were somehow at fault for their own deaths”, Cameron said.
“I am profoundly sorry for this double injustice that has been left uncorrected for so long.”
The tragedy took place during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest on April 15, 1989, at the stadium in Sheffield, northern England.
A total of 94 supporters died that day – two more died later, one in 1993 – and almost 800 others were injured when police herded about 2 000 fans into caged-in enclosures that were already full.
After a lengthy campaign by victims’ relatives to learn the full details of the Hillsborough disaster, a government-appointed panel reviewed and released 400 000 pages of previously undisclosed documents from police, the government and local authorities.
Bishop James Jones of Liverpool, who led the panel, said the documents offered clear evidence of failures by British authorities.
Denied
He said it showed authorities’ extensive attempts to shift blame for the tragedy on to fans and some proof that several Liverpool fans were denied medical treatment that could have saved their lives
Panel member Dr Bill Kirkup, previously associate chief medical officer at Britain’s Health Ministry, told reporters that evidence showed 41 of the dead had at least the “potential to survive”, although he could not be certain that a speedier response would have saved them all.
Although some compensation payments have been paid by police, no individual or organisation has ever faced criminal charges in connection with the disaster.
James Saunders, a lawyer for the families of the victims, said the disclosures meant that “those persons who have lied, concealed and distorted evidence should now be brought to account before the law personally”. – Sapa-AP