A WEST Belfast man has told how the British Army desecrated the body of a young photographer who they shot dead during the Falls Curfew.
Zbigniew Uglik, a British national of Polish heritage, was among four civilians killed by the British Army as it imposed a 36-hour curfew on the Falls area of West Belfast between July 3 and 5, 1970.
Last week, the Andersonstown News spoke to Zbigniew Uglik's family, who have finally broken their silence to demand truth and justice after 51 years.
Paul McCorry, who was detained by British Army during the curfew, witnessed how Zbigniew's body was dragged into the street where young soldiers were ordered by their superiors to shake his hand.
During the Curfew operation, British soldiers ransacked homes and injured a further 78 people. 337 were arrested.
On July 5, the curfew was brought to an end when thousands of women and children from Andersonstown burst through the curfew cordon with food and other vital supplies.
21-year-old Zbigniew was an amateur photographer, who had come to Belfast from London to document the plight of the people here following the outbreak of the Troubles.
Caught in Falls area during the curfew, he was given shelter by a resident in Albert Street.
After leaving to get fresh film from his South Belfast hotel room, Zbigniew was shot dead by the British Army while climbing a wall at the rear of the property.The British Army later falsely claimed he was a sniper.
The night the curfew was imposed, Paul McCorry was walking home up along the Falls Road but made a conscious effort to by-pass Albert Street where the curfew area began. Taking a left before St Colmgall's Primary School, he was stopped in his tracks by a two large British Army spotlights and accosted by two squaddies.
Paul was soon arrested, assaulted, and placed into a soft-sided troop carrier at the top of Albert Street. It was there that he heard soldiers fire and claim a hit in the area.
Giving an account of the events, he described hearing the "frightening" noise and the "choking fumes"of an Army Saracen reversing up the rubble-strewn street, towards the Falls Road.
He told how terrified young squaddies "pulled the body of a young man from the vehicle and threw him on the pavement".
"We sat in silence watching the scene," he said.
"The loudmouth Sergeant insisted his squaddies shake hands with the the dead man."
The Sergeant, Paul recalls, told the soldiers to "shake hands with this Paddy (Irish) bastard" so that they would "never be afraid to kill one".
"The dead 'Paddy bastard' turned out to be a young Polish photographer, Zbigniew Uglik," Paul said.
MURDERED: Zbigniew Uglik travelled from London to Belfast to photograph the city in troubled times
