Lieut Gen Sir Mike Jackson, who is preparing to lead NATO forces into Kosovo, served with the Parachute Regiment in Derry on Bloody Sunday.
He was adjutant to Colonel Derek Wilford, who was in charge of the 1st Parachute Regiment which shot dead 13 people in the city on Sunday, January 30th, 1972. Another person died later in hospital.
Speaking about Bloody Sunday at NATO headquarters in Skopje, capital of Madedonia, recently he described the events of that day as "utterly unplanned and unsought for". It was, he said, "tragedy all round". The conspiracy theories surrounding the shootings "simply don't run", he said.
He was not called as a witness before the Widgery tribunal and does not know whether he will be called before the British government's new investigation. That investigation was a government decision, he said, and that was the end of the matter.
"If it can have the effect of showing that it was a tragedy, but one not planned nor sought, then it may he helpful," he said. It may put the situation to rest and that was important for the future.
He expressed the hope that the investigation would also help to allay the distress of relatives of the dead. If all such events could be put to rest, including Loughgall, Bloody Friday in Belfast, and other similar events which he felt had achieved the status of folklore, then that could only help the future in Northern Ireland rather than the past.
Reflecting on the situation in Kosovo in the light of his Northern Ireland experience, and particularly following recent events in the Serbian province, he said that the British army had shown great restraint in its handling of the situation in the North. Serbia had shown no such restraint in Kosovo, especially as regards the proportionate use of force. "Had the Yugoslav army behaved like the British army in Northern Ireland, none of this (the war) would have happened," he said. The job of an army as a third force in ethnic conflict "required great restraint", he believed.
Gen Jackson served a total of six years in Northern Ireland. He commanded a parachute company there for two years from 1978, and its 1st Battalion from March 1984 to September 1986. His most recent service in Northern Ireland was from 1989 to 1992, when he was in charge of the 39th Infantry Brigade. He served in Bosnia in 1996.
As a soldier with extensive experience of dealing with ethnic conflict he believed that, as a rule, wherever minority numbers ran into double percentage figures there was a problem. When minorities were in single figures, generally they were accorded equal rights, opportunities, etc., without giving rise to concern, he said.