LIVERPOOL, England, (Reuters) – A government minister called yesterday for full disclosure of documents relating to the Hillsborough stadium disaster as Britain marked the 20th anniversary of a tragedy in which 96 people died.
Andy Burnham, the minister for culture, media and sport, urged the police and ambulance services, as well as the local council to publish all material to help families discover what happened to their loved ones.
The call came on the day families and footballers past and present attended a memorial service at Liverpool’s Anfield ground.
All 96 fans who died in the crush during the 1989 F.A. Cup semi-final tie with Nottingham Forest, at the neutral ground of Sheffield Wednesday, were Liverpool fans.
Two-minute silences were held in Liverpool, Sheffield and Nottingham at 3:06 p.m., the time the match was abandoned on April 15, 1989.
In a moving tribute, thousands looked on at Anfield as the fans’ anthem “You’ll Never Walk Alone” was sung by a choir and a candle lit for each of the victims.
The disaster and subsequent inquiry led to the removal of fencing at the front of stands and all-seater stadiums, changing the culture of grounds and creating a safer if less boisterous atmosphere at matches.
Families have been fighting for a fresh inquest to be held, unhappy at the decision by the coroner at the original 1991 inquest to limit the scope of his review. He said the victims were all dead or fatally injured by 3:15 p.m. but the families argue that cut-off meant they never discovered what happened to their relatives and prevented an official investigation into the emergency services’ response.
They also accuse police of a cover-up and of trying to place the blame on supporters’ behaviour.
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The families are angry nobody has been successfully prosecuted despite an official report in 1989 criticising police for their failure to control the situation.
“The Hillsborough families have suffered the immediate pain of the tragedy and the anguish afterwards of 20 years without a sense of proper resolution or closure,” Burnham said in a statement.
“There is a case for full disclosure by any public body of any document previously unpublished which would shed light on the disaster and its aftermath.
“It is vital that we have transparency, for the families to know they have been able to view all the information about the deaths of their loved ones.”
The then Sheffield City Council leader, Clive Betts, who was sitting in the stands as the disaster unfolded, said nothing could have been done differently at the time.
“In the end, the licensing arrangements could’ve been better, but then the council would’ve had to reinvent the national system,” Betts, now a lawmaker, told Reuters ahead of the service.
“The problem was there was a system, the fences had been put up to control crowds. All the emphasis…was on ground control, and I think there was not enough emphasis nationally about spectator safety.”
Gordon Wilson, who was chaplain at Sheffield Wednesday on the day, said the event was a landmark in establishing a formal structure to help the bereaved of disasters.
“It was one of the toughest jobs in my life,” the 71-year-old told Reuters.
“Because of the scale of the situation and the overwhelming atmosphere…and the total chaos.”