North East families prepare for long-awaited Chilcot Report
Washington solider Michael Tench was killed in Iraq in 2007. His mother Janice wants answers almost ten years later.
Families from our region are travelling down to London today for the publication of the long-awaited Chilcot Report into the Iraq war.
Thirteen years after British troops crossed into Iraq and seven years after the inquiry began work, Sir John Chilcot will deliver his verdict on the UK's most controversial military engagement of the post-war era.
Sir John had originally hoped it would be ready within two years of starting work in 2009, but it has since been hit by a series of delays.
The most serious has been bitter wrangling between the inquiry and the Cabinet Office over the de-classification of hundreds of official documents - most notably communications between Mr Blair and US president George W Bush.
With the final report running to 12 volumes plus summary with 2.6 million words, much of the focus will be on the section dealing with the decision to go to war.
Janice Proctor is unsure that families will get the answers they deserve though, instead “a whitewash” and “more lies”.
Janice’s son Michael Tench was just 18-year-old when a roadside bomb hit his Warrior patrol vehicle in Basra, he’d only been serving for around 18 months.
Janice said:
“I just don’t feel that there will be an answer, not an answer that we are looking for as parents. I do think that this is the start another long walk to uncover the whitewash, to uncover the lies. Sadly, it will take some of us to our death.
“I thought that when my son was killed and the lies that I was told at the beginning about my son’s injuries was enough and that was a scary thing to face. It’s now up against Tony Blair and this illegal war. It’s one road in and one road out and I don’t think that we’re on that road out yet.
“Tony Blair can have our children sent to war, 179 lives killed and he can only be heavily criticised, where does that justice lie?
“The only closure I would get is to know if Tony Blair was brought for war criminality and there was justice given to our families.”
The Iraq War Inquiry report will be published at 11am.