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 | | Tuesday, 22 January, 2002, 19:53 GMT McGuinness confirms IRA role  Mr McGuinness' evidence confirms his role in the IRA Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness has confirmed to the Bloody Sunday Inquiry that he was the Provisional IRA's second in command in Londonderry in 1972. In his signed statement to the inquiry, obtained by the BBC, Mr McGuinness says that as the IRA's second in command he told all volunteers that they were not to engage with the army that day to ensure the civil rights march passed off peacefully. The Saville Inquiry, sitting in the Guildhall in Derry, is examining the events of 30 January 1972 when 13 civilians were shot dead by British soldiers after a civil rights march. A 14th person died later.
The inquiry, chaired by Lord Saville of Newdigate, was established in 1998 by UK Prime Minister Tony Blair after a campaign by families of those killed and injured. Mr McGuinness' evidence says his orders were accepted and that no IRA member fired while the parachute regiment were shooting. Northern Ireland's Education Minister rejects a claim by a security service informer that he fired the first shot on the day, describing the claim as a 'blatant lie'. He also dismisses suggestions that IRA members were killed on Bloody Sunday and were secretly buried. Immune The Mid Ulster MP says he will not name any other IRA member. He adds that as a republican, he simply was not prepared to give that information. Mr McGuinness is not expected to go into the witness box until at least the spring. Witnesses to the inquiry are immune from prosecution on issues arising from their evidence. It is aimed solely at establishing the facts about what happened. The new inquiry is expected to run for about another two years. | |
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