Monday, January 05, 2004
At the same time that Blair is visiting Basra, telling British troops what a good job they're doing as new pioneers of soldiering there are reports that there have been some throwbacks to old forms of soldiering, namely kicking the darkies about. The Independent on Sunday reports that Military police are investigating the death of a young Iraqi man [Baha Mousa], who allegedly died after being beaten by British soldiers in Basra. This article has more information, including indications that, if accurate, Bush's claims that the toppling of Saddam Hussein means that there is no torture going on in Iraq are inaccurate, if only because certain sections of the British force there are now doing it themselves.
[B]rigadier [William Moore, commander of British forces in Basra] issued a statement on 3 October, expressing his "regrets" that their son "died while under British jurisdiction" and promising that if the military police concluded that a crime had been committed, "those suspected will be tried ... under the laws of the United Kingdom." The family initially accepted $3,000 of compensation for Baha's death - they say they thought that by offering this, the British were accepting responsibility - but they refused to sign a letter they received last month from a British claims officer called Perkins which offered a further $5,000 as a "final settlement" of the "incident" which would be made "without admission of liability on behalf of the British Contingent of the Coalition Forces in Iraq".
Which tends to be what organisations do when they're guilty of something.
Amnesty International are asking people to write to Tony Blair and Geoff Hoon asking them to make sure there's an independent and impartial investigation into this affair, like there's any chance of that happening.
[B]rigadier [William Moore, commander of British forces in Basra] issued a statement on 3 October, expressing his "regrets" that their son "died while under British jurisdiction" and promising that if the military police concluded that a crime had been committed, "those suspected will be tried ... under the laws of the United Kingdom." The family initially accepted $3,000 of compensation for Baha's death - they say they thought that by offering this, the British were accepting responsibility - but they refused to sign a letter they received last month from a British claims officer called Perkins which offered a further $5,000 as a "final settlement" of the "incident" which would be made "without admission of liability on behalf of the British Contingent of the Coalition Forces in Iraq".
Which tends to be what organisations do when they're guilty of something.
Amnesty International are asking people to write to Tony Blair and Geoff Hoon asking them to make sure there's an independent and impartial investigation into this affair, like there's any chance of that happening.
