The Bloody Sunday Inquiry is to issue subpoenas to force the disclosure of the names and addresses of soldiers who have so far failed to come forward to the tribunal.
The chairman of the inquiry, Lord Saville, yesterday said he believed this was "one way to get around the difficulty of obtaining information that would otherwise be unavailable". He was speaking on the second day of a preliminary hearing of the inquiry in Derry's Guildhall.
On Monday, the tribunal was told by counsel for the British Ministry of Defence that the names of a number of soldiers involved in Bloody Sunday, who are now receiving pensions, could not be given because of provisions in the Data Protection Act.
It was also disclosed that just 10 soldiers have so far come forward to the tribunal out of a total of 168 from the Parachute and other regiments who made statements after Bloody Sunday on January 30th, 1972. The original Widgery Inquiry heard evidence from 40 soldiers. It is believed some 20 soldiers could be traced using the MoD pension list.
The two-day preliminary hearing ended yesterday and rulings on contentious issues such as legal representation for families of the victims will be given on Friday. Full public hearings are due to begin in February.
Mr Peter Madden, solicitor for the families of 12 of the 13 men killed in Bloody Sunday and 13 people injured, said it would be known after Friday if the families would take part in the inquiry. He said that if there were to be a level playing field, it was vital that the tribunal agreed to give them 10 lawyers as opposed to the three suggested by Lord Saville.
Lord Saville told yesterday's hearing that he would consider ruling that statements made by individuals would be protected from use in any subsequent legal actions against them. He rejected an assertion by counsel for the families of the victims that this amounted to "partial immunity", saying he was referring only to an individual's own words.
"There is no question that material discovered by the tribunal generally will not be available for any purpose. We are only talking about statements made by that individual," Lord Saville said.
Lord Saville agreed to put his proposals in writing and allow lawyers for the families time to respond before taking a decision. In its opening statement in April, the inquiry ruled out giving a general immunity from prosecution for those who gave evidence. Lord Saville pointed out that people appearing before the inquiry had the right to refuse to answer a question if they believed it was self-incriminating.
Counsel for the families, Mr Seamus Treacy, also took issue with a request by counsel representing the soldiers, Mr Ian Burnett QC, for legal professional privilege to apply to a number of documents. The request came in a letter from Mr Burnett to the tribunal last Friday.
Mr Treacy said the Treasury solicitor was refusing to release "a raft of documents . . . on the alleged grounds of legal/professional privilege". He said his clients were only made aware of this on Monday, and that there were "at least six categories of what are clearly relevant documents, which the Treasury solicitor is trying to prevent disclosure of".
He said his clients needed time to consider Mr Burnett's letter and would then make a submission to Lord Saville. The tribunal was told the Crown had agreed to waive legal professional privilege in respect of its own documents.
Mr Don Mullan, author of Eye- witness Bloody Sunday and a member of the families' legal team, said he was impressed with Lord Saville's decision to issue subpoenas. "It indicates that this man will try to conduct the inquiry in a fair, impartial and just way," he added.
The inquiry's rulings will be published on the Internet, along with transcripts of tribunal proceedings and other information gathered. The web site address is http://www.bloody-Sundayinquiry.org.uk.