A senior British army officer in Northern Ireland 31 years ago decided that the civil rights march on the day of the Bloody Sunday killings should be stopped "at all costs", the Saville Inquiry heard today.
A confidential order for January 30th, 1972, said people from the Creggan and Bogside areas of Derry and others nearby were planning to march illegally to the city centre.
The march was to protest against the policy of internment introduced in the North the previous summer but also to show the "weaknesses of the Security Forces", the order read.
It added: "CLF [Commander Land Forces in Northern Ireland, Major General Robert Ford] has decreed that the marches must be stopped at all costs".
Thirteen Catholic men died when British paratroopers opened fire on the protesters. Another man died of his injuries.
Asked to comment on the order, which he wrote, Maj Gen Ford's former aide-de-camp described the wording as "a bit strong".
"I think the only explanation I can give for that wording is probably the exuberance of a young officer writing an operation order for the general staff at the time," he told the Bloody Sunday inquiry in central London.
"Looking back at it in hindsight, it is a bit strong. I think what I would say now is that that paragraph should read, 'CLF has decided that the marchers should be stopped. Full stop'."
PA