Post by RPankn on May 7, 2004 5:05:11 GMT -5
By Astrid Zweynert
LONDON (Reuters) - The Ministry of Defence is investigating fresh charges of abuse of prisoners in Iraq after the Daily Mirror published the testimony of a British soldier who said he had witnessed savage beatings.
Friday's newspaper said the man had given military police full details of the attacks, including names and ranks of those involved.
The soldier, attached to a regiment already under investigation, said the violence was led by three ringleaders.
"I witnessed four beatings when people were punched and kicked," he told the Mirror. "They'd be on their knees, and when they dropped their hands they'd be kicked until they raised them again."
The Ministry of Defence said an inquiry was under way.
If proven, the allegations would make life even more difficult for British troops in the tinderbox of Iraq as the government considers deploying more soldiers there.
"This is extremely serious for the reputation of the Army," Conservative defence spokesman Nicholas Soames told BBC Radio. "If there are some bad hats, and it sounds as though there may have been, they must be dealt with."
On one occasion, the soldier said, a corporal went up to a prisoner who had a sandbag over his face and poked his fingers into the man's eyeballs until he was screaming in pain.
"We can confirm that an individual who's come forward to the Daily Mirror with allegations has spoken to Royal Military Police," a defence ministry spokesman said.
He said several investigations into charges of abuse were already under way and it was not clear whether the new allegations referred to incidents that were already being probed.
The Mirror, which opposed the war in Iraq, published pictures last week apparently showing British soldiers urinating on a hooded prisoner and beating him with a rifle butt.
The pictures appeared soon after images emerged in the United States of U.S. soldiers at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib jail humiliating naked prisoners, which have inflamed the Arab world.
President George W. Bush has been forced to publicly apologise for his troops' actions and clamour is growing for the head of U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who goes before Congress on Friday in a bid to win the confidence of lawmakers.
Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said on Friday that Britain has made no decision yet to send more troops to Iraq but military sources expect an announcement to be made soon -- as gaps left by departing Spanish soldiers urgently need to be filled.
Soldiers may be dispatched to the flashpoint towns of Najaf and Kerbala, potentially far more dangerous than the city of Basra, and its surrounds, that they now patrol.
Hoon told the Guardian that troops should not go to the two holy cities until local Shi'ite leaders had been given more time to reach a political solution to end escalating violence.
But he did not deny they may end up there at some point.
The Mirror's rivals have suggested the pictures it published of British troops might be fake, unlike the U.S. photographs. But the government says it is taking them seriously.
"The abuse of prisoners and torture of prisoners, the degrading treatment of people in the custody of the coalition forces is completely and totally unacceptable and inexcusable," Prime Minister Tony Blair told reporters on Thursday.
Link: uk.news.yahoo.com/040507/325/eszwg.html
TA soldier makes claims of beatings
By Nigel Morris
07 May 2004
A member of the Territorial Army has made a series of allegations to military police that Iraqi prisoners were beaten and abused by British soldiers.
The TA soldier claims in today's Daily Mirror, that he saw Iraqi prisoners of war being beaten on four separate occasions. The new accusations concern the Queen's Lancashire Regiment, which is already being investigated over photographs of alleged torture published in the newspaper.
The TA man, referred to as "Soldier C", says PoWs were punched and kicked. In one assault, he says, a corporal placed a sandbag over a suspect's face and poked his fingers into the man's eyes until he screamed with pain.
Piers Morgan, the editor of the Daily Mirror, said Soldier C, had handed a dossier of evidence detailing "appalling beatings" to the Royal Military Police.
"He will be naming the names of the people responsible, including corporals and sergeants and some senior officers who he says were culpable in tacitly allowing this to happen," Mr Morgan said.
He told the BBC: "He believes there are already ongoing investigations into a number of people involved in this ring of bad apples and there will be automatic courts martial following."
The Ministry of Defence confirmed last night that military police had interviewed the TA member over his allegations. It also disclosed that a regular soldier had been interviewed separately in Manchester over claims that prisoners were abused. An MoD spokesman said: "We take all allegations about ill-treatment of Iraqi civilians very seriously."
Westminster was awash with rumours last night that arrests of British soldiers who had recently returned from Iraq were imminent. The claims were strongly denied by the Ministry of Defence.
Link: news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=518959
LONDON (Reuters) - The Ministry of Defence is investigating fresh charges of abuse of prisoners in Iraq after the Daily Mirror published the testimony of a British soldier who said he had witnessed savage beatings.
Friday's newspaper said the man had given military police full details of the attacks, including names and ranks of those involved.
The soldier, attached to a regiment already under investigation, said the violence was led by three ringleaders.
"I witnessed four beatings when people were punched and kicked," he told the Mirror. "They'd be on their knees, and when they dropped their hands they'd be kicked until they raised them again."
The Ministry of Defence said an inquiry was under way.
If proven, the allegations would make life even more difficult for British troops in the tinderbox of Iraq as the government considers deploying more soldiers there.
"This is extremely serious for the reputation of the Army," Conservative defence spokesman Nicholas Soames told BBC Radio. "If there are some bad hats, and it sounds as though there may have been, they must be dealt with."
On one occasion, the soldier said, a corporal went up to a prisoner who had a sandbag over his face and poked his fingers into the man's eyeballs until he was screaming in pain.
"We can confirm that an individual who's come forward to the Daily Mirror with allegations has spoken to Royal Military Police," a defence ministry spokesman said.
He said several investigations into charges of abuse were already under way and it was not clear whether the new allegations referred to incidents that were already being probed.
The Mirror, which opposed the war in Iraq, published pictures last week apparently showing British soldiers urinating on a hooded prisoner and beating him with a rifle butt.
The pictures appeared soon after images emerged in the United States of U.S. soldiers at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib jail humiliating naked prisoners, which have inflamed the Arab world.
President George W. Bush has been forced to publicly apologise for his troops' actions and clamour is growing for the head of U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who goes before Congress on Friday in a bid to win the confidence of lawmakers.
Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said on Friday that Britain has made no decision yet to send more troops to Iraq but military sources expect an announcement to be made soon -- as gaps left by departing Spanish soldiers urgently need to be filled.
Soldiers may be dispatched to the flashpoint towns of Najaf and Kerbala, potentially far more dangerous than the city of Basra, and its surrounds, that they now patrol.
Hoon told the Guardian that troops should not go to the two holy cities until local Shi'ite leaders had been given more time to reach a political solution to end escalating violence.
But he did not deny they may end up there at some point.
The Mirror's rivals have suggested the pictures it published of British troops might be fake, unlike the U.S. photographs. But the government says it is taking them seriously.
"The abuse of prisoners and torture of prisoners, the degrading treatment of people in the custody of the coalition forces is completely and totally unacceptable and inexcusable," Prime Minister Tony Blair told reporters on Thursday.
Link: uk.news.yahoo.com/040507/325/eszwg.html
TA soldier makes claims of beatings
By Nigel Morris
07 May 2004
A member of the Territorial Army has made a series of allegations to military police that Iraqi prisoners were beaten and abused by British soldiers.
The TA soldier claims in today's Daily Mirror, that he saw Iraqi prisoners of war being beaten on four separate occasions. The new accusations concern the Queen's Lancashire Regiment, which is already being investigated over photographs of alleged torture published in the newspaper.
The TA man, referred to as "Soldier C", says PoWs were punched and kicked. In one assault, he says, a corporal placed a sandbag over a suspect's face and poked his fingers into the man's eyes until he screamed with pain.
Piers Morgan, the editor of the Daily Mirror, said Soldier C, had handed a dossier of evidence detailing "appalling beatings" to the Royal Military Police.
"He will be naming the names of the people responsible, including corporals and sergeants and some senior officers who he says were culpable in tacitly allowing this to happen," Mr Morgan said.
He told the BBC: "He believes there are already ongoing investigations into a number of people involved in this ring of bad apples and there will be automatic courts martial following."
The Ministry of Defence confirmed last night that military police had interviewed the TA member over his allegations. It also disclosed that a regular soldier had been interviewed separately in Manchester over claims that prisoners were abused. An MoD spokesman said: "We take all allegations about ill-treatment of Iraqi civilians very seriously."
Westminster was awash with rumours last night that arrests of British soldiers who had recently returned from Iraq were imminent. The claims were strongly denied by the Ministry of Defence.
Link: news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=518959