New torture claims hit UK

2004-05-08 21:15

Herve Guilbaud

London - New allegations emerged on Saturday that British soldiers had also abused Iraqi prisoners, adding to the anger and disgust provoked by the behaviour of certain US soldiers in Iraq.

For the third time in a week, the Daily Mirror tabloid published claims against members of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment, this time saying its soldiers had even made CDs of beatings in Iraq to keep as souvenirs.

And the Independent newspaper quoted a former Iraqi prisoner, who alleged he was beaten on the neck, chest and genitals by soldiers from the same regiment.

Britain's Mirror - which has traditionally supported the ruling Labour Party but which opposed the Iraq war and is disliked by the entourage Prime Minister Tony Blair - was the first to start revealing allegations about British troop conduct that are another blow to Blair.

On May 1 the paper published photos appearing to show British soldiers kicking and urinating on an Iraqi prisoner, alongside graphic claims of abuse by two soldiers from Queen's Lancashire Regiment.

Experts have questioned the authenticity of the pictures but there is no proof that they are fakes.

Far from backing down

The Mirror's editor Piers Morgan was criticised for publishing the photos. But far from backing down, his paper has continued to reveal allegations of abuse in Iraq.

On Friday it published testimony from an anonymous reservist who said he had seen four incidents of Iraqi prisoners being punched and kicked by members of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment.

And on Saturday it carried a front-page picture purportedly showing a member of the regiment photographing a bound captive with bloodied teeth in the back of an armoured personnel carrier.

"There are no rules out there," a man, known only as "Soldier D", was quoted as saying. "I saw the man dragged into the vehicle beaten up, kicked and punched... I took the picture as I opened the doors of the vehicle."

"You'd come back from Iraq and people wouldn't know what you've been through. If you had pictures you could show them," he was quoted as saying.

Other papers have piled added pressure on the military establishment and the government.

The Independent on Saturday published what it said was the first eyewitness account of abuse by British soldiers. It quoted former Iraqi prisoner, Kifah Talah, 44, as saying he had been tortured and humiliated by up to eight soldiers at a time for three days.

The Guardian quoted British military sources as saying: "The sexual humiliation of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison was not an invention of maverick guards but part of a system of ill-treatment and degradation used by special forces soldiers that is now being disseminated among ordinary troops and contractors who do not know what they are doing."

It quoted one former British special forces officer as saying both US and British military intelligence soldiers had been trained in R2I (resistance to interrogation).

- AFP