"De hoge bazen wisten dat allemaal"

[Lincoln]

MoD KNEW ABOUT PoW ABUSE A YEAR AGO

May 10 2004


PoW ABUSE SCANDAL

By Paul Gilfeather Whitehall Editor

THE Government was told a year ago that rogue British troops allegedly murdered and tortured Iraqi prisoners.

Astonishingly, it kept the news secret. Now ministers are under pressure from furious MPs to come clean. Amnesty detailed the claims in a memo to the MoD in May and told Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon in October.

More memos and a meeting followed. The allegations were backed by a Red Cross report sent to the

Government in February and this month's Mirror disclosures.

Yet last week Armed Forces minister Adam Ingram said he had not seen ANY reports on mistreatment from "external organisations".

Last night, as Mr Hoon prepared to make a Commons statement on the scandal today, MPs accused the Government of hiding the truth.

Senior Labour MP Alice Mahon declared: "Now more than ever it needs to tell the public everything it knows about its meetings with Amnesty International and what the Red Cross saw in Iraq.

"Only when ministers have come clean will we be able to get to the real truth about how Iraqi prisoners were treated by coalition forces."

Amnesty first raised the abuse allegations in May after visiting Iraq where it spoke to several prisoners who said they were victims.

Representatives met MoD and Foreign Office officials the following month. Soon afterwards the respected human rights organisation received a letter from the Government.

Amnesty sent a second comprehensive memo to officials in July and a third in March this year.

In October Mr Hoon was informed. That month, the Government wrote again to Amnesty, this time promising an investigation.

Amnesty said last night: "We've had a series of meetings and correspondence with the Government over this for a year now.

"Yet it says it only became aware of the allegations in February."

Calling for an independent probe, the organisation added: "Instead of an impartial investigation to get to the truth, we continue to see secretive investigations by Royal Military Police who lack the independence that international law demands.

"Torture and ill-treatment is entirely unacceptable and there must be a full and independent inquiry as a matter of urgency."

Amnesty has made six fact-finding missions to Iraq since the war and documented a series of alleged abuses. It is due to publish a new report tomorrow detailing civilian deaths, allegedly at the hands of British troops and armed groups in Basra.

Yesterday it also emerged that Tony Blair and Mr Hoon were sent thousands of letters in January about the death of an Iraqi prisoner in British custody.

Baha Mousa, 26, died while being held by the Queen's Lancashire Regiment in Basra, southern Ira`q, in September last year.

Amnesty, which asked all its members to write in, said Mousa's body showed signs of torture. A spokesman said: "Mr Blair and Mr Hoon would have received thousands of letters from members worldwide."

In a series of exclusives that have stunned the world the Mirror revealed this month that rogue QLR troops abused Iraqi prisoners in custody. Our disclosures - backed by photos and testimony from four soldiers - forced Mr Ingram to make a statement to MPs. He said he had not seen any external reports on mistreatment.

But soon afterwards it was revealed that the Red Cross alerted the Government to "widespread" abuse of Iraqi prisoners in February. Last night it was not clear whether Mr Ingram was allowed to see the Red Cross report or was told of Amnesty's meetings and memos.

But no word of the damning report was released by the government which claims it is confidential.

Yesterday former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook blasted the decision to keep the findings secret.

He said: "There'd be absolutely no problem for the Red Cross if the British Government was to say 'Look, this is a matter of public interest. We want to share it with Parliament'.

"That's what the Government must do tomorrow. Until they do, we can't see what independent people are saying about the problem."

Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy said: "The Government could immediately ease public concerns by publishing the details of the report.

"It's essential this is dealt with quickly and openly.

"We owe it to our troops serving in difficult and dangerous circumstances in Iraq, and to their families, to remove the cloud of suspicion now hanging over our operations there."

Lib Dem defence spokesman Paul Keetch added: "If the Government cannot publish the Red Cross report in full, they should publish as much of it as the Red Cross are happy for them to make public."

Tory co-chairman Liam Fox said there were questions to be asked about what the Government knew - and when.

The Red Cross report warned that a "number of serious violations of international humanitarian law" had taken place in detention centres run by the British and Americans.

It identified concerns with every prison camp in Iraq and whether the treatment of prisoners broke the Geneva Convention.

Much of the abuse took place in US-controlled areas. But some allegedly occurred in British-controlled Basra. Worryingly for the British Government it said nine men were arrested in Basra and beaten severely, leading to one death.

The Red Cross said yesterday: "The report referred to problems with all the places of detention.

"The concern we've been expressing for a year deals with a general pattern of mistreatment of detainees.

"What we are tackling is the overall treatment of prisoners in camps under coalition forces in Iraq.

"We were warning of the fact that the treatment given to prisoners, and in particular the way they were prepared for interrogation, is not acceptable from the point of view of the Geneva Convention."