Army Violence On Iraqi Prisoner 'Shameful'

A report has slammed British forces treatment of prisoners in Iraq, with the Secretary of State for Defence, Liam Fox, addressing Parliament on the issue this morning.

Tackling an "appalling episode of serious gratuitous violence" against an innocent prisoner, he said: "The report is sober, focussed and detailed [and] above all, it to be both fair and balanced.

"It is, however, a painful and difficult read," he told fellow MPs.

"As the report sets out, [the victim] 'Baha Mousa was subject to violent and cowardly abuse and assaults by British servicemen whose job it was to guard him and treat him humanely', and this was the primary cause of his death."

The MP continued: "This Inquiry was rightly set up in 2008 by the previous Government with the intent to shine a spotlight on the events surrounding the death of Baha Mousa and to provide the most definitive account possible in the circumstances.

"It does that comprehensively.

"What happened to Baha Mousa and his fellow detainees in September 2003 was deplorable, shocking and shameful," he said.

"The Army have previously made a full apology to the family of Baha Mousa and to his fellow detainees and has paid compensation to them.

"We can take some limited comfort that incidents like this are extremely rare - but we cannot be satisfied by that," he said.

He was commenting after Sir William Gage published the report of his independent Public Inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of Baha Mousa in Iraq in 2003.

His report finds that a series of brutal acts by members of British forces led directly to the death of Baha Mousa, others were involved in assaulting him and his fellow detainees.

It also finds that others who could have intervened to prevent it failed to do so, and it reveals that there were inadequate doctrines and procedures in place for prisoner handling at the time.

Sir William made a large number of recommendations on doctrine, training, and practice in relation to prisoner handling designed to ensure that such an incident never happens again.

His report also recoded that the Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox has accepted all of the reports recommendations in principle, except one on techniques used during Tactical Questioning.

The victim, and innocent Iraqi civilian died in British Army custody after suffering "an appalling episode of serious gratuitous violence".

The sustained abuse meted out to father-of-two Baha Mousa, 26, represented a "very serious breach of discipline" by members of 1st Battalion the Queen's Lancashire Regiment (1QLR), the landmark inquiry found.

Chairman Sir William Gage said a number of British soldiers, including 1QLR's former commanding officer Colonel Jorge Mendonca, bore a "heavy responsibility" for the tragedy.

He said: "The events described in the report represent a very serious and regrettable incident. Such an incident should not have happened and should never happen again."

Sir William also said he was not able to identify all the individuals who took part in the beating to death of Mr Mousa, but he singled out Corporal Donald Payne, who in 2007 became the first British soldier to be convicted of war crimes over the episode, as the ringleader.

(BMcC)