UK troops found abuse funny

2005-01-27 19:58

Osnabrück - British troops laughed and joked as they made two Iraqi men simulate sex acts after nabbing them for looting, a soldier testified on Thursday at the court-martial of three comrades accused of mistreating civilians.

Gary Bartlam, whose 2003 photos at a British base outside Basra sparked the abuse scandal, implicated the senior defendant in the abuse as he confronted his former colleagues for the first time in court.

Bartlam, 20, seemed nervous at first, speaking haltingly as he gave his account of events surrounding the pictures that have shocked Britain.

The photos, which also include a tied-up Iraqi hoisted on a forklift, were taken after soldiers rounded up looters who stole humanitarian aid stockpiled at the base.

Bartlam said he went to his quarters after the roundup. When he came out again, he saw two naked Iraqis with a group of soldiers around them being forced into sexual poses, he said.

"People were laughing, bantering, joking around about what they were doing," he said.

Those watching included Daniel Kenyon, 33, the highest-ranking of the three defendants and the commander of Bartlam's anti-tank platoon, Bartlam said.

About 15 minutes earlier, he said, Kenyon was standing next to a bound Iraqi lying on the dusty ground and asked Bartlam to get some water.

Bartlam said he complied, then poured water on the man to refresh and clean him.

Another defendant, Mark Cooley, 25, was driving the forklift, Bartlam testified.

Kenyon, Cooley and Darren Larkin, 30, are charged in the alleged abuse at the aid warehouse being guarded by British troops in southern Iraq in May 2003.

Kenyon and Cooley have pleaded not guilty to all the charges against them, while Larkin has pleaded guilty to one count of battery and not guilty to other counts.

Bartlam testified that his unit believed they were to show captured civilians that day that "we do mean business", based on an order he said Kenyon passed along the day before.

Kenyon told the unit to take poles used to hold up camouflage netting with them for their protection and to "beast" the Iraqis, Bartlam testified, using a slang term for making the captives work hard.

- AP