Nobel Peace Prize winner and former SDLP leader Mr John Hume told the British army about terrorist activity in the Bogside before Bloody Sunday, it was claimed at the Saville inquiry in London yesterday.
Mr Hume passed on the information to Col Roy Jackson, commanding officer of the 1st Battalion, the Royal Anglian Regiment, one of Northern Ireland's resident battalions, in August 1971.
Col Jackson told the inquiry that Mr Hume and a priest approached him on the evening that Mr Hume was arrested at a protest against special powers legislation. "He gave me some information," the officer said. Mr Hume, then the Stormont MP for Foyle, directed him towards a place where arms and explosives could possibly be found, saying it was "something of interest to me".
Col Jackson said: "Yes, it was in the evening of that day and Mr Hume appeared and asked for me with the reverend gentleman . . . they, together, suggested that I go and look in a certain place in the Bogside where there may be some arms, explosives or something."
Ms Cathryn McGahey, for the inquiry, interrupted the questioning by barrister Mr Gerard Elias, representing many of the soldiers. She said: "It may be there are very good reasons for my learned friend not to pursue this further at the moment."
Lord Saville, the inquiry chairman, agreed, saying it may raise security issues. "We have to be very careful about these matters for security and similar reasons. We will have to make a decision as to whether or not to pursue the matter and if so, we will do it in a manner that does not prejudice anybody's rights."
Earlier, the former Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath denied he tried to browbeat the chairman of the original Bloody Sunday inquiry into exonerating the British soldiers who carried out the killings. Sir Edward (86) said there was nothing sinister in his warning to Lord Widgery, who chaired the original inquiry, that Britain was locked in a propaganda as well as a military war in 1972. He said Lord Widgery, then the Lord Chief Justice, understood that he was under no pressure to take sides. "He made plain the difference between what our people are doing and what his task was," Sir Edward said.
He rejected the suggestion from Mr Michael Lavery, representing the families of many of the bereaved and injured, that the conversation was a signal to him that "England expects every man to do his duty." Mr Lavery continued: "This was a very dangerous period for the British army because a serious propaganda defeat would aid the IRA."
The Widgery inquiry, ordered by Sir Edward, largely exonerated the soldiers, saying they fired in self-defence after coming under attack. Survivors, the bereaved and Catholics dismiss the findings as a whitewash. The Paras claim they fired at gunmen and nail bombers. Impartiality was vital to Lord Widgery's appointment, Sir Edward argued.
He continued: "The people who were involved in the appointment wanted it to be absolutely plain that there was no pressure on whoever did it to reach a particular conclusion. They all knew that was the last thing that I would tolerate.
"To suggest that Lord Widgery, of all men, would be browbeaten into finding conclusions which he did not think were genuine is malicious and it is completely unjustified." Parliament was keen for the Widgery inquiry to report quickly on its findings and Lord Widgery was given the target of one month. It lasted 20 days and reported six weeks after the event.
Sir Edward said he had made "no mental" decision about what had happened in the immediate aftermath of Bloody Sunday because his main concern was setting up the legal framework to investigate it. In appointing Lord Widgery he felt he had found the "most distinguished legal figure" available for the job.
Sir Edward was repeatedly asked by Mr Lavery whether innocent people were murdered on Bloody Sunday. He stressed that he had not at the time, and would not now, make a statement about that.
He denied the government had a "partisan interest" in the outcome of the Widgery inquiry and had set it up in such a way to achieve "a certain result".
Sir Edward returns to the witness box on Monday. The hearing continues today.