EAST DERRY DUP MP Gregory Campbell says it is time for Sinn Fein’s Martin MccGuinness to “tell the truth” about his IRA role in the Troubles in Derry.
Mr Campbell was responding to the news that Martin McGuinness has agreed to appear in front of a senior judge to give evidence regarding the activities of the Provisional IRA in Derry at the time of the death of IRA man Séamas Bradley.
Mr McGuinness admitted at the Bloody Sunday Inquiry that he was second in command of the Provos in the city.
He has two previous conviction in the Republic for IRA membership but was never convicted in the North of Ireland of terrorist activities.
Said the DUP MP: ““Martin McGuinness has had ample time to provide the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth regarding his activities in the Provisional IRA.
“On more than one occasion he has refused to do so. He has been ‘loyal’ to his PIRA oath. He has often declared what he didn’t do but never yet what he did do, while the 2iC of the IRA in Londonderry.
“The Deputy First Minister has always been ready to offer an opinion on others’ roles in the Troubles but has been silent about his own role. Given this fact, any evidence that he provides in this latest appearance before a judge needs to be seriously questioned.
“Martin McGuinness should provide full and complete disclosure. Anything less will be seen as a political stunt rather than remorse or a serious attempt to deal with the past.
“Senior republicans have been determined to try and rewrite the history of the Troubles.
“They don’t like the FACT that 60% of Troubles deaths related to republicans, 30% to loyalists and 10% to the state.
“This party will not allow republicans like McGuinness to forget their role in the past nor will he be allowed to spin some appearance at an inquest as a step in dealing with the past. Justice is central to dealing with the past. Democracy was abandoned.
“There was never a cause for resorting to Thompson sub-machine guns as the Saville Report indicated.
“There are many families across Northern Ireland with an empty chair. The victims of the Claudy bomb or the Enniskillen bomb would like to see McGuinness in a dock to tell all he knows about those atrocities,” added MP Campbell.