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Blair: I'm sorry for abuse
10/05/2004 06:45 - (SA)
London - Prime Minister Tony Blair on Sunday apologised for British soldiers' mistreatment of prisoners in Iraq as Britain admitted it had known for "several months" of allegations Iraqi prisoners had been abused.
Blair's apology on French television came hours before Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon was expected to make a statement to parliament on Monday "about the situation concerning Iraq".
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said she could not say whether the statement would also be about a Red Cross report voicing concern over Britons' treatment of Iraqi prisoners.
In the first official admission of abuse by British forces since shocking pictures were published 10 days ago, Blair told French television during a one-day visit to Paris: "We apologise deeply to anyone who has been mistreated by our soldiers. This is totally unacceptable."
"Those responsible will be punished according to the army disciplinary rules," he told France 3 television.
US President George Bush apologised on Thursday for the abuse and humiliation of Iraqi prisoners by US troops at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, calling the ill treatment "a stain on our country's honour".
Britain's Daily Mirror, in its April 30 issue, published photos which appear to show British soldiers beating and urinating on an Iraqi prisoner in a camp near Basra in British-controlled southern Iraq.
Since then, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and London-based rights group Amnesty International have revealed they have been warning the US-led coalition about abuses and prisoner mistreatment for over a year.
Former foreign secretary Robin Cook, who resigned last year in protest at the Iraq invasion, said on Sunday it was in the public's interest for the government to publish the Red Cross report.
The document highlights concerns about British-run prisons in southern Iraq, according to the ICRC.
"I hope we will get a statement in the House of Commons tomorrow (Monday) and I hope in that statement the British government will say: 'We are going to publish this report from the Red Cross'," Cook told BBC television.
"I find it intolerable that all we know about this report is what is actually leaked in Washington."
The Red Cross said on Friday it had expressed concern to Britain over prisoners held in British-run detention centres. It added that the abuse it had found in Iraq's US-run prisons was systematic and amounted to torture.
Late on Sunday, Britain's Ministry of Defence admitted it had known for "several months" of the abuse allegations, saying investigations had been going on since last year.
The ministry was responding to the charges by Amnesty that it had first told the government of the allegations a year ago.
While the ministry was unable to confirm it had dealt with Amnesty, it said the allegations first came to light "several months ago".
- AFP
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