Inquiry witness move condemned

Martin McGuinness says government faces challenge

Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness has condemned attempts by lawyers acting for soldiers at the Bloody Sunday inquiry to gain access to intelligence material on civilian witnesses.

The inquiry is investigating the circumstances surrounding the deaths of 13 civilians shot dead at a civil rights march by British paratroopers in Londonderry on 30 January 1972.

Another man died later from his injuries.

Mr McGuinness, the Northern Ireland education minister, said he believed it was an attempt to put the focus on the people of Derry.

He was speaking on Friday before a Sinn Fein delegation met the Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern in Dublin.

Mr McGuinness said: "It clearly suggests there is a very determined attempt by elements of the British establishment to effectively put the focus on the people of Derry.

It also represents a real challenge to the British government

Education Minister Martin McGuinness

"It is almost turning out to be a situation where the investigation that is taking place is more about what the people of Derry were doing, than what the British soldiers were doing on that day when 14 people were murdered.

Real challenge

"The people of Derry will be very concerned that there is a conspiracy afoot to prevent the truth coming out."

The Sinn Fein MP said some within the British establishment were "fighting like rats with their backs against the wall" to prevent the truth getting out at the inquiry.

He said he believed the latest move by lawyers acting for the soldiers represented a "real challenge" to inquiry head Lord Saville.

Earlier this month, Mr McGuinness said he would tell the Saville inquiry he was second in command of the IRA in Derry at the time of Bloody Sunday.

He said his evidence would also say that no member of the IRA was killed or injured on Bloody Sunday.

The Northern Ireland minister has given a draft written submission to the inquiry, hearing evidence in the Guildhall in Derry.

British soldiers in Derry on Bloody Sunday

A date is yet to be fixed for Mr McGuinness's appearance in the witness box at the Guildhall, but it is likely to be within the next few months, once he meets inquiry lawyers.

The Bloody Sunday inquiry was established in 1998 with Lord Saville of Newdigate in the chair.

It has been sitting in public for the past year and is expected to run for another two years.