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Britain’s Abu Ghraib
Video images of alleged British soldiers brutally beating a group of Iraqi teenagers remind the world all too strongly of Abu Ghraib. The allegations are very serious and are certain to renew debate over the conduct of the coalition forces in Iraq. The pictures, in the News of the World, are highly distressing. Soldiers are shown chasing youths, dragging four of them into a compound and beating them with batons and kicking various parts of their bodies — with at least one blow to the genitals. The attack went on for a minute, with 42 blows inflicted in that time. The News of the World said there was also one of a soldier kicking a dead Iraqi in the face.
The newspaper described the footage, filmed in southern Iraq, as a secret home video, apparently filmed for fun by a corporal and then obtained by the paper from a whistleblower whom it declined to identify. The paper claims that it has established that the soldiers involved were British, but would not disclose to which unit or regiment they belong.
What is most intriguing is that the authorities appear to be absolutely clueless as to what is happening right under their noses. Where was the British Ministry of Defense all this time? Why is the ministry so often the last one to know what its personnel are doing? Or did it know?
If the allegations are true, it would not be the first such incident. A year ago this month, three British soldiers were jailed and dismissed from the army in disgrace for their roles in a prisoner abuse scandal at an aid camp in southern Iraq. Still, all the facts must be provided before conclusions are reached. News of the World, Britain’s best-selling Sunday newspaper, says it has made exhaustive checks to establish the video’s authenticity. In2004 , however, the Daily Mirror’s photographs appearing to show soldiers from the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment abusing Iraqi detainees were later revealed to be fakes.
Like the nine American soldiers convicted in October of offenses relating to a series of abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison, near Baghdad, if British soldiers have broken rules that govern situations in wartime, they too must be punished. They should be brought to justice because it appears that at other times they are not. Lawyers acting for Iraqi civilians who claim they were tortured by British troops were told last week that a prosecution for war crimes would not be brought by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The cases include a26 -year-old hotel receptionist who died in the custody of British troops in Basra in September2003 .
Iraq has turned out to be much more difficult than the British military expected since the US-led invasion began in March2003 . The price of Britain’s involvement in Iraq is now100 servicemen killed and many more injured. But the answer is not for British troops ruthlessly to abuse helpless teenagers in Iraq for what was described as a disturbance or some sort of protest near a British military compound.
http://arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=77727&d=13&m=2&y=2006
What is most intriguing is that the authorities appear to be absolutely clueless as to what is happening right under their noses. Where was the British Ministry of Defense all this time? Why is the ministry so often the last one to know what its personnel are doing? Or did it know?
If the allegations are true, it would not be the first such incident. A year ago this month, three British soldiers were jailed and dismissed from the army in disgrace for their roles in a prisoner abuse scandal at an aid camp in southern Iraq. Still, all the facts must be provided before conclusions are reached. News of the World, Britain’s best-selling Sunday newspaper, says it has made exhaustive checks to establish the video’s authenticity. In2004 , however, the Daily Mirror’s photographs appearing to show soldiers from the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment abusing Iraqi detainees were later revealed to be fakes.
Like the nine American soldiers convicted in October of offenses relating to a series of abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison, near Baghdad, if British soldiers have broken rules that govern situations in wartime, they too must be punished. They should be brought to justice because it appears that at other times they are not. Lawyers acting for Iraqi civilians who claim they were tortured by British troops were told last week that a prosecution for war crimes would not be brought by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The cases include a26 -year-old hotel receptionist who died in the custody of British troops in Basra in September2003 .
Iraq has turned out to be much more difficult than the British military expected since the US-led invasion began in March2003 . The price of Britain’s involvement in Iraq is now100 servicemen killed and many more injured. But the answer is not for British troops ruthlessly to abuse helpless teenagers in Iraq for what was described as a disturbance or some sort of protest near a British military compound.
http://arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=77727&d=13&m=2&y=2006
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A ministry of defence spokesman said the arrest was carried out on Sunday, but declined to give further details.
The video has been shown widely on British television as well as Arabic news stations and shows a group of soldiers dragging Iraqi protesters behind a wall while a demonstration is under way, beating them with batons and kicking them.
The News of the World newspaper, which released the footage, said it had been filmed from the roof of a building by another soldier who can be heard egging on his comrades and mocking the Iraqis' pleas for mercy.
The ministry of defence said on Sunday that military police were investigating the alleged mistreatment.
British troops have been accused of abuse in the past, though not on the scale of that perpetrated by the Americans against prisoners at the Abu Ghraib jail near Baghdad.
Tony Blair, the British prime minister, said on Sunday that he took the latest allegations very seriously, and his spokesman said on Monday that it was important the public in Iraq understood the government's abhorrence of any abuse.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/CDE02F01-9D50-4EB5-A42C-790A03751D13.htm
The NoW said that the video, which had been filmed secretly, had been handed to it by an unidentified source and that “we’ve satisfied ourselves that this was an absolutely genuine article.”
The video was reported to have been filmed in January 2004 during widespread protests against the record levels of unemployment that have accompanied the US-led war and occupation of Iraq.
A 60-second sequence, apparently recorded from a rooftop within the Army’s HQ, shows a stand-off between a crowd of protesters and British troops. A group of young Iraqis are shown throwing stones at the compound before being chased away by soldiers armed with batons and rifles.
A radio message is heard directing troops, “Black top, blue bottoms! Black top, blue bottoms! GO!” and four Iraqi boys—thought to be in their early teens—are pulled into the compound by eight soldiers.
Shielded from public gaze by the camp wall, the soldiers proceed to beat their captives, whilst another provides sadistic commentary: “Oh yes! Oh yes! You’re gonna get it. Yes, naughty little boys! You little f***ers, you little f***ers. DIE! Ha, ha!”
All but one of the captives are barefoot, and all are unarmed, dressed only in trousers and t-shirts. The first prisoner is headbutted, and punched in the kidneys and face. He pleads “No! Please!” as he tries to stop the assault, whilst the unseen commentator ridicules his cries and his accent, “No, pleeese—don’t hurt me.”
He is grabbed round the neck by another soldier and flung to the ground where he is kicked and beaten again, before the first soldier strikes him over the head with his baton.
The second prisoner is also on the floor, having been thrown there by another soldier. Ten baton blows are aimed at his body, as the young captive attempts to wriggle free from the soldiers’ range. Another soldier who was not part of the original snatch squad binds the boy’s wrists and another strikes him on the backside with a baton. The boy goes limp and what looks like a pool of blood forms around his head.
Meanwhile, two soldiers are shown kicking the third prisoner six times in the body, before one grabs him by the shoulder and beats him on his legs and feet with his baton.
After being beaten several times, prisoner four is held up by his arms by two soldiers whilst another—identified by the NoW’s source as a sergeant—comes from behind the captive to boot him in the testicles. As the prisoner slumps, the commentator screams encouragement, “In the f***ing head!”
The NoW reveals that the video has a further two minutes of footage shot at various intervals. In one sequence, the cameraman is shown an Iraqi corpse and proceeds to kick the dead man in the face twice, whilst a soldier sniggers: “He’s been a bad mother****er.”
Another sequence shows three soldiers grabbing an Iraqi man and forcing him to kneel behind a wall where he is kicked in the chest.
The NoW says that it knows the unit and regiment involved in the beatings, but has not published the details for “security reasons.” It says that its informant came across the tape after the unit had returned to Britain and handed it over out of disgust.
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http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/feb2006/brit-f14.shtml