In evidence to the Saville Inquiry, Mr Martin McGuinness will detail a meeting attended by him, the IRA officer in command in Derry and other IRA volunteers, during which they decided their response to Bloody Sunday, The Irish Times has learned.
It is also understood Mr McGuinness will refuse to identify any member of the IRA in Derry on January 30th, 1972, or confirm the roles played by persons whose names are written down and shown to him. He is expected to confirm he was second in command of the Derry IRA on that date.
According to a Sinn Fein source, the North's Minister of Education has been advised that the undertaking by the British Attorney General - granting a high degree of immunity in respect of evidence - would not extend to named persons.
"He has been advised by his lawyers that the undertaking given by the Attorney General does not extent to such persons, nor is the Minister confident that their identities will be protected. As a republican, he is not prepared to give such information," the source said.
Mr McGuinness will tell the inquiry "a critical and difficult decision had to be made" foll owing the killing of 14 men after British paratroopers opened fire during a civil rights march.
However, a meeting of the IRA unit decided the British army was attempting to draw it into a fight. It was accepted it would be a "serious mistake" to take weapons to the scene of the shootings and no military action was taken.
"It was concluded that any military engagement with the British army would see the IRA fall into a trap. It was felt that the British army's actions in shooting innocent civil marchers should be allowed to stand to the full glare of the media.
"Martin McGuinness will strongly assert his view, which is shared by the people of Derry, that the murders in Rossville Street were calculated acts of revenge and part of a deliberate strategy to crush increasing republican and nationalist resistance," he added.
Mr McGuinness intends to tell the inquiry no IRA weapons were stored at or near the Ross ville Flats and there was no movement of weapons in the Bogside area prior to or during the march. "He will also tell the inquiry that no members of the IRA were killed or injured on Bloody Sunday. Had this happened, he would have known," said the party source.
Outside Sinn Fein offices on the Falls Road yesterday Mr McGuinness said he intended "standing with the people of Derry in their quest for justice and for truth and that's why I'm doing what I'm doing".
He said it was inappropriate to discuss the content of his statement, but it would be with the inquiry soon. Mr McGuin ness added that the British army "got away with murder" in Derry in 1972 and this was continuing during the inquiry.
"There is a battle being fought in Derry's Guildhall and it is a battle between the British establishment and the relatives of those who were killed, the injured and the people of Derry," he said.
The Sinn Fein chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, described the decision by Mr McGuinness to give the statement to the inquiry as a "significant development" for the peace process.
Mr Mark Durkan, an SDLP representative for Foyle and the North's Minister of Finance, said the statement would not come as a surprise to anyone in the area.