The Bloody Sunday Inquiry will today begin a week of public hearings in Derry's Guildhall, aimed at addressing outstanding legal issues before the tribunal begins its main public hearings in the city next March.
This week's hearings, chaired by Lord Saville of Newdigate, are expected to take place over five days. Today's session begins with a progress report from Mr Christopher Clarke QC, counsel for the inquiry.
Up to 700 civilians and around 500 soldiers have so far been interviewed by tribunal investigators.
A virtual-reality computer programme has been created for witnesses to enable them relive the scene in Derry on January 30th, 1972, when the 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment opened fire in the Bogside killing 13 men and injuring 13 others, one of whom died later.
Today's opening hearing will also address the submissions for anonymity from British soldiers who were "non-firers" in Derry on that day. In April, soldiers who fired shots secured their anonymity after requesting a judicial review.
Lord Saville had ruled that the 17 soldiers would not be granted anonymity, but this was overturned as a result of the legal challenge.
The main hearings were due to start this month but were delayed as a result of appeals to tribunal rulings and will now begin on March 27th.
A total of 1,800 troops were on duty in Derry that day. Hundreds of soldiers may, as a result of the judicial review, also seek anonymity before giving evidence.
The inquiry will tomorrow address the issue of anonymity and screening for RUC officers. To date 12 officers have made applications for anonymity.
Further consideration will also be given to submissions from three media organisations, the BBC, UTV and ITN. They are fighting a tribunal order which instructs them to hand over interviews their journalists conducted with eyewitnesses. The organisations argue that by giving the material to the inquiry they are in breach of journalistic ethics.
The handling of expert evidence will also be addressed at the hearings. A new report on forensic material assembled at the request of Lord Saville, and made public in recent weeks, describes as "worthless" much of the original forensic evidence collected for the 1972 Widgery inquiry, which claimed that some of the victims may have handled guns and nail-bombs.
The sessions are also expected to deal with issues raised by barristers acting for individual families of the victims and the timetable for future hearings.
Before the main hearings begin, the tribunal is required to rule on whether military witnesses called before the inquiry should give their evidence in Derry or whether they may submit it at another location. This ruling is expected closer to the start of the main hearings.
Mr John Kelly, the brother of one victim, Michael Kelly (17), has stressed that the hearings this week are important to the families of those killed.
"There are issues that need to be laid to rest so we can get past the delaying tactics of the Ministry of Defence and concentrate on the main hearings next year," he said.