McGuinness will give inquiry evidence

Martin McGuinness said the MoD was itself holding back evidence

Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness has said he will now give evidence in person to the Londonderry inquiry into Bloody Sunday.

However, speaking in Derry on Friday night he said he was "sceptical and suspicious" about whether the new tribunal would be able to find the truth.

The new Bloody Sunday Inquiry is investigating the circumstances surrounding the deaths of 13 civilians shot dead at a civil rights march by British paratroopers in the city's Bogside area on 30 January 1972. A 14th man died later from his injuries.

Mr McGuinness, education minister in the Northern Ireland Executive, said: "My legal representatives are currently in discussion with the inquiry.

"I will be very eager when that work is completed to provide my evidence to the inquiry.

"I intend to attend the inquiry in person. I will be there."

Martin McGuinness: "In desperation lawyers are pointing the finger at me"

However, Mr McGuinness, alleged at the inquiry by lawyers for the soldiers to have fired the shot which precipitated the army shootings, said attempts were being made to divert attention away from those responsible for the military operation that day.

Delivering the annual Bloody Sunday memorial lecture in the city, the Mid-Ulster MP listed a series of obstacles facing the tribunal which was established by Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1998.

"Elements within the British military and political establishment are attempting to ensure that even if the inquiry concludes that all of those murdered and wounded on Bloody Sunday were totally innocent civilians, nothing will emerge to point the finger at those responsible for planning, authorising and executing the strategy adopted in Derry 29 years ago," he said.

Speaking at the Calgach Centre, he added: "After 29 years the British establishment is attempting to blame everyone, except of course their politicians and their generals.

"For the last 29 years they have blamed the civil rights movement, the people of Derry, the dead of Bloody Sunday.

"And now very late in the day, in an obvious act of desperation, they are trying to place the responsibility for Bloody Sunday on me."

The Inquiry, chaired by Lord Saville of Newdigate, has been shown security service documents from 1984 quoting an agent known as Infliction as saying that Mr McGuinness fired the first shot in Derry's Bogside on January 30 1972.

Mr McGuinness referred to the fact that earlier this month, former MI5 agent David Shayler said intelligence officers in the service had subsequently decided Infliction was an "unreliable" informant.

The Sinn Fein minister said Infliction, if he existed, should be called on to give evidence.

The tribunal, which has been sitting in public in the city's Guildhall since March, has so far failed to acquire a statement from Mr McGuinness explaining what he did that day.

The inquiry last month refused him legal representation at the hearings unless, and until, he came forward.