13 May 2004

No evidence of widespread abuse by UK troops: Blair

There is "no evidence whatever of systematic and widespread abuse" by British troops in Iraq, the Prime Minister said yesterday.

Mr Blair added that photographs published by the Daily Mirror newspaper are "almost certainly fake" in the Army's view. He added that the images are undergoing final checks.

"I can't think why anyone would do such a thing," he said in a Radio interview in Lancashire. "The Queen's Lancashire Regiment, all the regiments that have been out in Iraq, have actually done a fantastic job for people there, and they have done it with soldiers protecting themselves and protecting the local population in very difficult circumstances."

Mr Blair said that if there have been any situations of abuse then there would be an apology.

"The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is not that in a democracy bad things don't happen, but when they do happen the thing is investigated and people are held to account."

In a briefing to lobby journalists this morning, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesperson said that the government wanted to 'Iraqi-ise' the prisons issue "as quickly as possible" - that is, allow Iraqi security forces to take over control of handling detainees.

The objective, the PM's spokesperson said, was to achieve local control as quickly as possible. In order to do that, however, the government had to be sure that the Interim Authority had the capacity to deal with these matters, he added.

(gmcg)