Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness has told the Saville Inquiry into the British army killings on Bloody Sunday that he ordered IRA volunteers not to attack British troops during the civil rights march.
|
The Sinn Féin leader today told the Saville Inquiry his commanding officer had instructed him to tell every volunteer not to open fire.
He said: "I spoke with the command staff and all active service volunteers. I relayed the decision taken by the OC [officer commanding].
"Without exception everyone I spoke to accepted that our approach to the march was sensible."
Mr McGuinness denied accusations he fired the first shot on Bloody Sunday when 13 unarmed civilians were killed by British paratroopers.
Former IRA member Paddy Ward has also claimed that the Sinn Féin leader supplied detonators for 16 nail bombs for a planned attack on troops after themarch.
Referring to Mr Ward as a "fantasist" and an "informer", Mr McGuinness dismissed Mr Ward's claims as a "tissue of lies".
Speaking to the press this morning Mr McGuinness said he was at the Saville Inquiry to tell the truth about whathappened.
He said: "I'm here for Michael McDaid and all those who were murdered by the British Parachute Regiment on Bloody Sunday. I'm here for the families and forthe truth they deserve."
Mr McGuinness has admitted he was second-in-command of the IRA on January 30th and in his statement to the Inquiry issued two years ago, he testified he had attended the rally as a supporter of the civil rights movement.
He is expected to say that there were no Provisional IRA weapons in the Bogside on Bloody Sunday. He will also deny claims by a British agent codenamed "Infliction" thathe told him he fired a shot from a Thompson sub-machine gun from the RossvilleFlats on Bloody Sunday.
When these claims were made at the Saville Inquiry in April 2000, Mr McGuinness dismissed them as "pathetic fabrication".
"If this is the best that the British military can do they are going to have a miserable time in Derry Guildhall for the next two years," he said.