Sinn Féin's chief negotiator Mr Martin McGuinness yesterday questioned the independence of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry. On the second day of his evidence to the inquiry, the Sinn Féin MP, who became OC of the Provisional IRA in Derry two weeks after the killing by paratroopers of 13 civilians in the city's Bogside area in January 1972, also accused the inquiry of having a fixation about him.
Mr McGuinness's criticism of the inquiry came during his cross-examination by Mr Edwin Glasgow QC, who represents most of the British soldiers involved. The witness agreed with the barrister that he had campaigned to have the inquiry into Bloody Sunday set up.
"I accept that it is a distinguished tribunal, but I do not accept that it is independent," he said.
Mr McGuinness said the aftermath of the killings and the original Widgery Inquiry into Bloody Sunday had a dramatic impact on the local population.
"So you are already talking about people working from a low confidence base, in fact, in my opinion, a no confidence base, in the ability of the British judicial system to provide justice for the people here in the north of Ireland," he told the inquiry's three judges.
The Mid-Ulster MP said he was "casting no aspersions on any of the people who are sitting on this tribunal" and added that "you people have been here a considerable time, this is a huge chunk out of your lives".
He said although he had reservations about the independence of the inquiry, that did not necessarily mean he did not have confidence in its ability to "get to the truth and finally clear up what has been a running sore for the people of this city".
He said his reservations about the setting up of the inquiry were shared by "the vast majority" of people in Derry.
"I cannot speak for the relatives, they can speak for themselves, but I think we all travel in hope that we can get a proper outcome to this, that the truth will be known and that the relatives and the rest of the citizens of this city can get on with their lives," he added.
Mr McGuinness, who said he left the Provisional IRA "in the early 1970s", had earlier accused the inquiry of having a fixation about him.
"I thought I was here to talk about Bloody Sunday. It appears to me that I am talking about everything but Bloody Sunday, so there is a fixation with all sorts of events in and around Bloody Sunday," he said.
"This is not the Martin McGuinness tribunal, this is the Bloody Sunday tribunal. I have to say I think that this tribunal has had a fixation with Martin McGuinness going back quite a number of years," Mr McGuinness added.
The witness, who was being questioned by Mr Andrew Nicol QC, representing journalists Liam Clarke and Kathryn Johnston, the co-authors of a biography on the Sinn Féin MP entitled From Guns To Government, said many people were "fed up to the back teeth" with what he called the meticulous examination of "the Irish side of the equation".
He said he thought he was in the witness box to talk "about Bloody Sunday and I appear to be talking about everything but Bloody Sunday, right up to the 1980s".
Mr McGuinness earlier told the inquiry's counsel, Mr Christopher Clarke QC, that at the inquiry's request on Tuesday, he had contacted the owners of two premises in the Bogside used as a safe house and as an IRA arms dump at the time of Bloody Sunday, to ask their permission to give the locations of the premises to the inquiry.
"In both cases they have asked me not to reveal the names or the location of the premises, and I have to say that does not surprise me.
"This is what I had expected and, in my view, their attitude is totally understandable," he said.
The witness added that the "people who provided us with logistical support including the use of the premises did so at great personal risk" because they could have been either arrested or killed.
He said that the owners of the premises had also expressed their concern to him about the safety of their widespread family members in the event of possible attacks by loyalist paramilitaries.
"So, for all these reasons, I am not prepared to betray the confidence and trust they put in me. I think, I have to say, that they have my deepest gratitude and respect and I will never reveal their names," he said.
Mr McGuinness has completed his evidence and the inquiry resumes today.