PUP extends sympathy to families but questions McGuinness' role

Spokesman Leslie Mitchell said: "There are concerns that the events of the day have been isolated from incidents which had been occurring in the City at the time which undoubtedly would have had a huge impact on existing tensions, namely the murder of two police officers only days previously to what was essentially an illegal parade.

"Additionally, the Saville Report accepts that there were armed republican terrorists present, we certainly feel that this warrants further investigation. Furthermore, following Martin McGuinness' speech before the publication of the Report, calling for truth and honesty, we would call for a police investigation into evidence cited in the Report which named Mr McGuinness as probably being in possession of a sub-machine gun on the day. Given Mr McGuinness' position within the government of Northern Ireland and his willingness to speak openly about his position within IRA, we are puzzled as to why he refused, along with many others, to actually take the opportunity provided by the Inquiry and put his personal experiences of the day into the open.

"Certainly when espousing the need for truth and honesty in this process we must ensure the evidence taken by the Inquiry is full and comprehensive and not 'cherry picked' in any way. This will become apparent with further detailed analysis of the Report."

He concluded: "Finally we find it regrettable and a difficult image to accept that a convicted IRA terrorist was given centre stage to lambast British soldiers.

"We would hope that this has now drawn a line under one, but certainly not the only, tragic event in our history and the families have gained the closure they had been denied for so long. We will endeavour to examine the report in detail and produce a response in due course," concluded the PUP spokesman.