pkd
FULL MEMBER
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2009
- Messages
- 1,432
- Reaction score
- 0
New 'torture and rape' scandal involving British troops in Iraq
Print
2009-11-14
New 'torture and rape' scandal involving British troops in Iraq
Britain probes Iraqi claims of abuse as victims feel able to speak out after UK troops withdraw.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LONDON - An investigation has been launched into allegations that British soldiers tortured Iraqi civilians, Britain's Ministry of Defence said Friday.
The announcement of the probe came after the Independent newspaper said 33 cases of alleged abuse had been reported, including claims of rape, the use of torture techniques and physical assault.
The newspaper said the civilians claimed British soldiers in Iraq copied sexual and physical abuse from photographs taken at the notorious US-run Abu Ghraib jail in Baghdad, which emerged in 2004.
A legal letter was served on the ministry last week by a lawyer representing the Iraqis, the report said.
Britain's armed forces minister Bill Rammell said "formal investigations" must be carried out "without judgments being made prematurely".
"Allegations of this nature are taken very seriously, however allegations must not be taken as fact and formal investigations must be allowed to take their course without judgments being made prematurely," he said.
In the letter to the ministry, reported in the newspaper, lawyer Phil Shiner said: "Given the history of the UK's involvement in the development of these techniques alongside the US, it is deeply concerning that there appears to be strong similarities between instances of the use of sexual humiliation."
Shiner further pointed out that the new cases of abuse against Iraqi civilians became known after the British withdrawal from Iraq this year.
"Many of these Iraqis were afraid to come forward and only now have been able to gather the courage to do so. That is no mean feat, given what they have been through," Shiner added in his letter.
"I have it on good authority that there are hundreds of cases that are going uninvestigated," Shiner told the BBC.
Mazin Younis, an Iraqi human rights campaigner involved in the case, told the BBC that many alleged victims waited years before coming forward because they were afraid of what would happen if they complained.
One claimant alleges he was raped by two British soldiers, while others say they were striped naked, abused and photographed, the Independent reported.
Female British soldiers are alleged to have taken part in the alleged abuse, according to the newspaper.
In September 2003, Iraqi hotel receptionist Baha Mousa died after suffering 93 injuries, including fractured ribs and a broken nose, while in British military custody in Basra, southern Iraq. A public inquiry into the case is taking place in London.
Photographs taken at Abu Ghraib showed naked and hooded prisoners being beaten until they bled by their US guards and made to commit humiliating acts such as simulated homosexual intercourse.
In 2006, then US President George W. Bush admitted the scandal was the biggest blunder Washington had made in its entire Iraq campaign, and the facility was closed and handed over to Iraqi control.
The US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 is viewed by critics as an 'act of aggression' that violated international law.
Subsequent US occupation policies caused the country to descend into almost total chaos, bordering on civil war.
An estimated 1.3 million Iraqis have been killed in Iraq as a direct result of the invasion, while millions more have fled the country.
Critics argue that the recent stability announced in the country should not excuse the 'crime' of invading Iraq, calling for the prosecution of the war's architects for 'crimes against humanity'.
2009-11-14
New 'torture and rape' scandal involving British troops in Iraq
Britain probes Iraqi claims of abuse as victims feel able to speak out after UK troops withdraw.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LONDON - An investigation has been launched into allegations that British soldiers tortured Iraqi civilians, Britain's Ministry of Defence said Friday.
The announcement of the probe came after the Independent newspaper said 33 cases of alleged abuse had been reported, including claims of rape, the use of torture techniques and physical assault.
The newspaper said the civilians claimed British soldiers in Iraq copied sexual and physical abuse from photographs taken at the notorious US-run Abu Ghraib jail in Baghdad, which emerged in 2004.
A legal letter was served on the ministry last week by a lawyer representing the Iraqis, the report said.
Britain's armed forces minister Bill Rammell said "formal investigations" must be carried out "without judgments being made prematurely".
"Allegations of this nature are taken very seriously, however allegations must not be taken as fact and formal investigations must be allowed to take their course without judgments being made prematurely," he said.
In the letter to the ministry, reported in the newspaper, lawyer Phil Shiner said: "Given the history of the UK's involvement in the development of these techniques alongside the US, it is deeply concerning that there appears to be strong similarities between instances of the use of sexual humiliation."
Shiner further pointed out that the new cases of abuse against Iraqi civilians became known after the British withdrawal from Iraq this year.
"Many of these Iraqis were afraid to come forward and only now have been able to gather the courage to do so. That is no mean feat, given what they have been through," Shiner added in his letter.
"I have it on good authority that there are hundreds of cases that are going uninvestigated," Shiner told the BBC.
Mazin Younis, an Iraqi human rights campaigner involved in the case, told the BBC that many alleged victims waited years before coming forward because they were afraid of what would happen if they complained.
One claimant alleges he was raped by two British soldiers, while others say they were striped naked, abused and photographed, the Independent reported.
Female British soldiers are alleged to have taken part in the alleged abuse, according to the newspaper.
In September 2003, Iraqi hotel receptionist Baha Mousa died after suffering 93 injuries, including fractured ribs and a broken nose, while in British military custody in Basra, southern Iraq. A public inquiry into the case is taking place in London.
Photographs taken at Abu Ghraib showed naked and hooded prisoners being beaten until they bled by their US guards and made to commit humiliating acts such as simulated homosexual intercourse.
In 2006, then US President George W. Bush admitted the scandal was the biggest blunder Washington had made in its entire Iraq campaign, and the facility was closed and handed over to Iraqi control.
The US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 is viewed by critics as an 'act of aggression' that violated international law.
Subsequent US occupation policies caused the country to descend into almost total chaos, bordering on civil war.
An estimated 1.3 million Iraqis have been killed in Iraq as a direct result of the invasion, while millions more have fled the country.
Critics argue that the recent stability announced in the country should not excuse the 'crime' of invading Iraq, calling for the prosecution of the war's architects for 'crimes against humanity'.
