Relatives of those killed also plan a weekend of activity in Derry January 27–28, including retracing the route of the Jan. 30, 1972, march. The events this year in Derry are titled "Protecting the guilty?" referring to how, despite the British government conceding a new inquiry in 1998, London has continued to cover up the truth.

The government made the concession to grant a new investigation days after a massive march of 40,000 in Derry, the culmination of a years-long campaign throughout Ireland, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere against the exoneration of the British Army by the previous 'Widgery' Inquiry.

The first of some 700 civilian witnesses who have come forward started to give testimony to the commission of inquiry in November. Each recounted the terror during the military assault that day as marchers realized the army was firing live bullets. Evidence continues to come out about the deliberate and conscious political judgments that set the framework for the attack.

For example, one of the documents presented before the inquiry by relatives is a memorandum written just before Bloody Sunday by General Robert Ford, the commanding officer of the British Army in the six occupied counties of the North of Ireland at the time. In the memo Ford states that he is "coming to the conclusion that the only way to deal with the situation is to shoot selected ringleaders" of the DYH [Derry Young Hooligans]." Derry at the time was at the center of a mounting civil rights movement protesting the internment without trial of hundreds of nationalists who opposed the British occupation.

A recording made during the shootings on Bloody Sunday by the Irish Republican Army of telephone lines it had tapped in the British Army's barracks has also been made available to the inquiry. One soldier is heard saying, "General Ford is lapping it up," while others caution about "things going badly" and " the wrong people" are being shot.

Against this background, London has sought to shift attention away from its responsibility for the events. Opening his remarks to the inquiry in November, the lawyer representing 450 former soldiers focused his comments on an attack on Sinn Fein leader Martin McGuinness, claiming he wasn't prepared to testify before the inquiry.

London has alleged that two of its informers say that McGuinness fired the first shot on Bloody Sunday. London says it will reveal only partial information from these informers and has requested a Public Interest Immunity Certificate in order to conceal the rest. Earlier last year London's Defense Secretary said a "bureaucratic bungle" had led to destruction of rifles fired by British soldiers on Bloody Sunday.

McGuinness said the allegations "are an obvious attempt to deflect the spotlight away from the weight of evidence that continues to be presented and which indicts not only the British soldiers who fired the shots on Bloody Sunday but also their political and military masters." McGuinness confirmed that he has "no problem giving evidence to the inquiry, although I have concern about the lack of equivalence in the presentation of evidence, that is the anonymity of British military witnesses and the willful destruction of weapons used on Bloody Sunday by the British Ministry of Defence."

Antonis Partasis also contributed to this article.  
 
 
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