Inquiry: British soldiers beat Iraqi detainee to death

[News_Editor]

Inquiry: British soldiers beat Iraqi detainee to death

2011-09-09 02:05:08 GMT+7 (ICT)

LONDON (BNO NEWS) -- A series of brutal acts by British soldiers led directly to the death of Baha Mousa who was detained in Iraq in 2003, an independent inquiry into the death reported on Thursday.

Mousa, a 26-year-old Iraqi hotel clerk, was detained after British soldiers from the 1st Battalion Queen's Lancashire Regiment found some weapons during a raid on a hotel in September 2003. He died after spending 36 hours in detention where he suffered 93 external injuries, plus internal ones including fracture ribs, the report found.

The retired appeal court judge Sir William Gage, who led the inquiry, found that there were inadequate doctrines and procedures in place for handling prisoners of war. "Baha Mousa was subject to violent and cowardly abuse and assaults by British Servicemen whose job it was to guard him and treat him humanely," the report said.

Gage also found that others who could have intervened to prevent the death of Baha Mousa failed to do so. Other detainees were also subjected to beatings and other brutal acts, the inquiry, which was established by the British government in 2008, found.

"I find that for almost the whole of the period up to Baha Mousa's death on the evening of 15 September the detainees were kept handcuffed, hooded and in stress positions in extreme heat and conditions of some squalor," Gage said. He added that one of the principal causes of the violence was "an unfounded rumor circulating" that the detainees had been responsible for the murder of a popular officer or of members of the Royal Military Police.

He said troops at the temporary detention facility where the men were held assaulted the detainees, but singled out Corporal Donal Payne. The assaults by the guards were instigated and orchestrated by Payne, who used a method known as the "choir" which consisted in "punching or kicking each detainee in sequence, causing each to emit a groan or other sign of distress", the report said.

Gage also accused three other soldiers. Liutenant Craig Rodgers failed to report the serious assaults that he knew had taken place, while Major Michael Peebles, responsible for the welfare of the detainees, also failed to stop the violence. Lieutenant Colonel Jorge Mendonca, the unit's commander, was also responsible for the incidents.

Lastly, Gage said that the Ministry of Defense was aware that the use of five techniques was already prohibited under the Geneva Conventions. "These techniques were hooding, the use of white background noise, sleep deprivation, wall-standing (a form of stress position) and a limited diet," Gage added.

British Defense Secretary Liam Fox told the House of Commons that the events were "deplorable, shocking and shameful." He added that Mousa's death "was avoidable and preventable and there can be no excuses".

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