Sinn Fein figure to admit IRA past

LONDON, England (CNN) -- The republican political party Sinn Fein's deputy leader, Martin McGuinness, is expected to make a statement in which he admits to having been second-in-command on Bloody Sunday.

The education minister in the Northern Ireland Assembly is preparing to submit a draft statement to a British commission's investigation into the army's actions in 1972 "within days," a source in Belfast said on Sunday.

He will confirm that he was the Derry Irish Republican Army's "adjutant" at the time of Bloody Sunday, sources said.

It will be the first time he would have publicly admitted his IRA role in the day's events.

Thirteen Roman Catholics were killed by British soldiers during the January 30, 1972, human rights march.

The statement will lead to him being called to give evidence to the inquiry. McGuinness' statement will be made in the near future at a time to be agreed by the minister, his solicitors and the inquiry.

He is expected to reject outright as "rubbish and a lie" allegations made during the Bloody Sunday inquiry that he fired the first shot on the fateful day, the British news agency Press Association said.

McGuinness will also testify he was aware of approaches made to the IRA by British officials to ensure the march was peaceful, the source said.

He will testify that the IRA had taken precautions to achieve that, including a decision by the IRA to stay away from the march.

As adjutant, it was his responsibility to pass that information on to IRA members.

The decision was also made to put IRA weapons into a secure closed dump for the duration of the march, and IRA volunteers were given the day off to spend with their families or attend the march as independents.

McGuinness is expected to say he was present at the march for its entirety.

He has come under pressure from the inquiry team to make a statement, intensified by a security services agent claim that McGuinness had fired the first shot before troops opened fire.

Once he has made the statement he will, like the hundreds of others who have made one, be liable to be called to give evidence in person and face cross-examination by lawyers representing both the families of those who died and the security forces.

Northern Ireland Assembly member Ian Paisley, justice spokesman in the Democratic Unionist Party, said the British government should monitor what McGuinness says and charge him with IRA membership following any confession.

'Bloody Sunday' inquiry begins at last in N. Ireland
March 27, 2000
Blair orders probe of 1972 N. Ireland massacre
Jan. 29, 1998

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