BLOODY SUNDAY INQUIRY:The officer commanding the British army's operation in Derry on Bloody Sunday has claimed he gave the order to launch the arrest of stone-throwing hooligans.
Maj Gen Pat MacLellan, then a brigadier in command of the 8th Infantry Brigade, told the Saville inquiry yesterday it was not correct the order to begin the operation, during a civil rights march on January 30, 1972, was given by the Commander of Land Forces, Gen Robert Ford.
Gen (now Sir Robert) Ford had instructed him four days before the march there should be an arrest operation if the soldiers were attacked by hooligans and he specifically allotted the 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment for the task, Maj Gen MacLellan said in a written statement to the inquiry, sitting in London.
"This was not a matter for debate and there was no discretion as far as I was concerned."
On the day, the marchers were proceeding peacefully but the hooligans were attacking the troops manning some of the barriers, he said. He was not going to give the order until he was sure there was separation between marchers and hooligans, assisted by Lieut Col Peter Welsh, who was in a helicopter, he said.
"My orders were that if the barriers came under attack I was to launch 1 Para to scoop up as many hooligans as possible. I was satisfied that the barriers had come under attack and so when Lieut Col Welsh said that people were making their way home . . . to me that spelt out that separation had been achieved and the moment had come for me to comply with my orders and launch the arrest operation.
"When I told the Brigade Major to give the order, I was satisfied that separation had been achieved. I remember asking him to make a final check with Lieut Col Welsh. When the Brigade Major told me that had been done, I told him he should give the order."
It has been suggested that Gen Ford ordered the operation to begin by insisting 1 Para go in. "That is not what happened," Maj Gen MacLellan said.
Gen Ford maintains he attended the march purely as an observer and played no part in giving orders. Bereaved families insist his frontline presence was pivotal to the way events unfolded and was part of a fundamental change in the policy of the army in Derry.
Maj Gen MacLellan, now 77, said Gen Ford's proposed operation to arrest 300 to 400 rioters if the hooligans caused trouble, had not been conducted before in Derry "in my time". He thought it was unrealistic to hope to catch that many as the rioters would run away. But he approved of 1 Para as the arrest force.
"As far as I was concerned they were an experienced, good battalion who had been operating in Belfast, I think, for some 20 months and were highly thought of by the general, so it was okay by me."
Asked about the mechanics of the operation, he said that would be down to the commanding officer of 1 Para, Lieut Col Derek Wilford. Maj Gen MacLellan's evidence was adjourned until tomorrow.
Meanwhile, a major on the staff of 8 Brigade on Bloody Sunday, who had day-to-day management of the operations room, said in his written statement that the march was not unusual until after 4 p.m. when the shooting occurred.
"If there had been no shooting, this would have just gone down in history as another large march," said the soldier, known only as INQ 1901.
"My recollection of the concept of the operation was that the army had a desire to try to arrest as many of the stone-throwers as possible. This was to be the job of 1 Para. Apart from this, the objective was to let the march pass off as peacefully as possible whilst preventing the marchers getting to the shopping areas and the old part of the city where we anticipated they would have burned the place down," he said.
"In accordance of the plans set out in the operational order, 1 Para were ordered to start the arrest operation by the Brigadier. Three companies of 1 Para went into the Bogside. I understand that they were shot at by civilians and 1 Para reacted (as any infantry unit would have reacted) by returning fire, taking cover and endeavouring to shoot those who had shot at them." He said he wanted to stress that 1 Para were in the Bogside to arrest people, not shoot them.