Liverpool marks 20th anniversary of Hillsborough

LIVERPOOL, England (AP) -Liverpool players past and present wept alongside survivors marking the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough stadium disaster that changed the face of English football.

Church bells tolled as the names of the 96 Liverpool fans who died in the crush at the 1989 FA Cup semifinal were read out in front of about 20,000 fans attending the annual memorial service at Anfield.

A two-minute silence was held across the city at 3:06 p.m. (1406 GMT) - the time when Liverpool's match with Nottingham Forest at Sheffield Wednesday's ground was abandoned after a fatal crush in one of the stands.

"(Hillsborough) broke the heart but not the spirit of our community,'' the Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt. Rev. James Jones, said inside Anfield. "For many here today it seems still like yesterday. Those we lost are always in our minds.

"Never a day passes without a thought of what their tomorrow might have been, without that longing for justice for their sake as well as for ours.''

Twenty years ago, police opened a gate to alleviate crowding outside the Hillsborough ground, allowing fans to surge into an area already packed with standing fans. The influx crushed 94 fans to death inside the Sheffield stadium, while two more died later.

In the days after the tragedy, Anfield became a shrine for grieving fans to lay flowers, scarves and flags on the pitch. It is a scene that has played out inside the ground every year since and Wednesday was no different.

Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez and his players sat with fans in the 72 steeply raked rows of the Kop, which was rebuilt into an all-seater stand when the club implemented the post-Hillsborough reforms. They were joined by Everton manager David Moyes as the northwest port city of Liverpool united in a renewed outpouring of grief.

After the club's stirring anthem "You'll Never Walk Alone'' was sung by a choir, Kenny Dalglish, who was manager on April 15, 1989, gave the first reading at the service.

Government minister Andy Burnham was heckled while reading a message from Prime Minister Gordon Brown - reflecting the ongoing anger that no one has been held accountable for the disaster. Police mismanagement was strongly blamed in the official report.

Cries of "Justice for the 96'' echoed around the ground.

"Remembering any loss of life on that scale is painful,'' said Burnham, an Everton fan. "It is even harder when a disaster was no natural disaster but entirely man made ... and when those who lost most have suffered so many dark days since.

"Hillsborough has left many deep wounds that will never heal - it's horror is not diminished by the passage of time.''

After an inquiry by a senior judge exposed flaws in the way football games were policed in stadiums, the government of the time ruled that all topflight stadiums would be all seater and that perimeter fences would be torn down.

While Burnham said Hillsborough's legacy is that fans are safer at matches, there was no announcement of a new inquiry that grieving fans are still demanding.

Many have also publicly denounced The Sun newspaper, which falsely claimed - and later retracted - that Liverpool fans had robbed corpses and urinated on them.

"We are resolved as ever to ensure that the truth will defeat the lies and propaganda that surround Hillsborough,'' said Trevor Hicks, president of the Hillsborough Family Support Group, who lost two teenage daughters in the crush.

Nottingham marked Forest's involvement in the disaster with a two-minute silence in the city's Old Market Square, while Sheffield Wednesday opened the Leppings Lane end of its stadium, where the disaster happened.

Wednesday's anniversary came a day after Liverpool battled Chelsea to a thrilling 4-4 draw in a Champions League quarterfinal game in London, only to go out 7-5 on aggregate after two legs.