George Jackson
A man who was a member of the Official IRA in Derry on Bloody Sunday said yesterday he was not aware of a report which stated that two Official IRA snipers armed with rifles were present in the Bogside area of the city when paratroopers opened fire during a civil rights march, killing 13 people and wounding 13 others.
The report, in the form of an unpublished article for the Observer newspaper, was put by a barrister for most of the Bloody Sunday paratroopers to the witness, known as Official IRA 8, at the inquiry into the killings.
Edmund Lawson QC said the article was to have been published in the Observer newspaper days after the January 30th, 1972, killings.
He said the author of the unpublished article wrote of a conversation he had had with the "acting command officer of the Official wing of the IRA", who is known to the Inquiry as Official IRA 3.
The report stated: "On Sunday most of our members were taking part in the march and were unarmed. We had two marksmen on duty but with strict instructions not to use their weapons until the area was clear of civilians.
"One was covering Rossville Street from the corner of William Street and Rossville Street, another in the Little Diamond covering William Street."
The witness, who had joined the Official IRA before Bloody Sunday, said that, although another member of the paramilitary organisation, known as Official IRA 1, had fired on the day, all of its members had been told "there would be no operation in the Bogside on the day of the march".
"The march was a legitimate march and we could not afford any bad publicity.
"I have mentioned that I had taken part in many marches and it seemed sensible to me that a decision had been made by the command staff not to do anything which could blacken the name of the Official IRA with the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association or the general public," he said.
Official IRA 8 said that sometimes "we would have a crack at the army following a riot, but we would never open fire if there was any possibility of civilians being injured. We were fighting a propaganda war as much as anything and did not put civilians' lives in jeopardy."
The witness said the Official IRA had a defence and retaliation policy which dictated the circumstances in which they could open fire on soldiers. He said the circumstances included after the soldiers had fired either live or rubber bullets or had mounted an arrest operation.
"My understanding was that our role was defence and retaliation. If soldiers made an incursion into the Bogside and it was safe to do so, we would have opened fire," he told the inquiry.
Official IRA 8 said that the Official IRA had not decided to use the Bloody Sunday march to "mount an operation" to respond to criticism of its "perceived weakness" after it had released a kidnapped soldier several weeks earlier.
"I recall the incident. The decision to release him was made by the command staff and I have no knowledge of their reasons for doing so. I stood by the decision."