U.K. admits rights breaches in Iraq

[struggle4progress]

Source: The Hindu

Hasan Suroor

London: In an embarrassing turn-around, the British government has admitted “substantial breaches” of the European Convention on Human Rights over the treatment of Iraqi civilians held by its soldiers resulting in the death of a hotel worker in Basra in 2003.

The u-turn, announced by Defence Secretary Des Browne, follows a prolonged legal battle which culminated in the Law Lords rejecting the government claim that the human rights convention did not apply to British troops serving abroad ...

Media reports indicated that compensation to the family of the hotel worker Baha Mousa, who died in British custody allegedly as a result of torture, could be in the region of £1 million.

Mousa and eight others were arrested after a raid on a hotel in September 2003 on suspicion of militant activity. Mousa had 93 injuries on his body when he died, and at a court martial last year the Ministry of Defence admitted that he was tortured over 36 hours. It also admitted that eight others were ill-treated ...

Read more: http://www.hindu.com/2008/03/29/stories/2008032961411400.htm

[struggle4progress]

1. A blot on our record (Shiner / Guardian)

It is right that the Ministry of Defence has admitted breaching Baha Mousa's human rights, but now we need a full inquiry into our detention policy
Phil Shiner
March 28, 2008 2:30 PM

The Ministry of Defence's announcement that admits it breached the human rights of Baha Mousa and eight other Iraqis appears at first glance to be good news. However, while the survivors of the incident - and Baha Mousa's father - will now receive substantial compensation, this case was never about damages alone. Full accountability of all those responsible for what took place in this incident - and many others where scores of Iraqis appear to have been tortured and killed in detention with UK soldiers - is entirely dependent on there being an independent and public inquiry into the UK's detention policy in south-eastern Iraq.

The court martial into Baha Mousa's death revealed that it was standard operating procedure for all battle groups to hood and stress Iraqi detainees despite the conditions of extreme heat. Hooding and stressing was both taught to UK interrogators and was written policy that reflected Nato policy. The civil servants responsible at permanent joint headquarters either had never heard of the 1972 ban on the five techniques from Northern Ireland or, unbelievably, judged the ban only applied to the UK. As early as mid-May 2003 there had been, according to one order distributed to the entire chain of command, a number of deaths of Iraqis with various units in theatre.

The evidence shows that soldiers had no training in prisoner handling, and routinely treated Iraqis as dehumanised objects. Thus, one finds the clearest evidence of religious and sexual humiliation both in the Mousa incident and in others, such as Camp Bread Basket, and of soldiers routinely engaged in depraved and disgusting practices. Mousa's fellow prisoners say they were urinated on by soldiers, and were forced to drink their own or soldiers' urine when they understandably complained of thirst, given they were being deprived of water.

To all of this shocking evidence must be added what is about to emerge in high court proceedings into an incident at the Abu Naji facility in May 2004. The evidence of survivors, medics and eyewitnesses claims that UK soldiers executed up to 20 Iraqis, tortured another nine (who will now give evidence) and subjected some of the 20 dead to unspeakable atrocities before finally dispatching them ...

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/phil_shiner/2008/03/compensatory_measures.html

[jimshoes]

2. Ill treated huh?

Torture = ill treated now? Human rights conventions do not apply to British troops serving abroad? Sounds like they were taking a page right out of *, cheney & rummy's handbook. I'm glad to see they've come to their ethical senses about this, albeit a little late.