The former British prime minister, Sir Edward Heath, is to tell the Bloody Sunday Inquiry that no other area of Northern Ireland was comparable with Derry prior to the Bloody Sunday killings 30 ago.
In a copy of Sir Edward's statement to the inquiry, which has been seen by The Irish Times, he says that on the evening of the shootings he received a "highly-charged and emotional" phonecall from the then Taoiseach Mr Jack Lynch.
In his statement, Sir Edward said that during the months which followed the introduction of internment in 1971, the security forces achieved a lot of successes, some of which never came to public notice.
"Progress was being made in Belfast, but tension was particularly high in Londonderry. No other area in Northern Ireland was comparable with Londonderry. I remember that when I visited there in December 1971, I had to wear special bullet-proof clothing and there were emergency blood supplies readily available close by.
"The Provisional IRA were in considerable numbers and in positions of strength in the nationalist Bogisde and Creggan areas. At this time RUC officers did not attempt to enter these areas and the army went in only in cases of urgent need to do so. They were in effect 'no-go' areas.
"The general view of Her Majesty's government was that the 'no-go' areas would have, in due course, to be retrieved, but there was no plan as at the end of January 1972 for that to happen," the statement added.
Sir Edward also said that he was not aware of any proposal by the then commander of land forces, Gen Ford, that on Bloody Sunday "the young hooligans in Londonderry should be shot, after due warning, as a possible means of restoring law and order in Londonderry".
"If such a proposal had been approved by Gen Ford's superiors in the army, it would have reached the secretary of state for defence, who would have reported it to me. This did not happen and I was not aware of any such suggestion."
The former prime minister said he could not recall when he first heard of the killings. "I was at Chequers at the time, so as far as I recall I was with the crew of my boat discussing plans for the forthcoming sailing season.
"As the records show, I received a message from my private secretary, Lord Bridges, late in the afternoon of January 30th, telling me about the latest confirmed reports from the Ministry of Defence. That was followed during the evening by a succession of oral reports on the telephone which would not have been recorded.
"I took a highly-charged and emotional telephone call from the Taoiseach, Mr Jack Lynch, that evening."
Sir Edward said he knew nothing about the decision to deploy the Parachute Regiment into the Bogside on Bloody Sunday. The killings were "totally unexpected" and it became clear that there would be widespread political sensitivity in the UK, in Ireland and in the US.
Sir Edward said a decision to set up an independent public inquiry into the events of Bloody Sunday was taken the day after the killings.
Meanwhile, in a ruling yesterday, the inquiry's chairman, Lord Saville, ruled that both Sir Edward and the then secretary of state for defence, Lord Carrington, would give their evidence to the inquiry in London. The hearings will resume on Tuesday.