Today as a Briton I am disgusted and ashamed by the conclusion of a Public Inquiry that British forces mistreated prisoners taken in an incident in Iraq in 2004.
The Al-Sweady Public Inquiry was set up in 2009 under the Chairmanship of retired High Court judge Sir Thayne Forbes. Fortunately he found that the most serious allegations, that detainees had been killed (the allegations were later withdrawn) were unfounded. They had arisen because, unusually, the bodies of those killed in the fighting were collected and taken to a British base. This was to identify whether somebody known to have been involved in a previous incident involving the murder of lightly armed military police, was among the dead. While it is important to remember that the Inquiry was not a trial, Sir Thayne did conclude:
(T)hat the conduct of some individual soldiers, and some of the procedures of the military, "fell below the high standards normally to be expected of the British army".
It found that:
The detainees should have been given some privacy while being strip-searched and should have been given proper food when they were first detained
They should not have been deprived of sleep before they were questioned or shouted at during interrogation
They were deprived of sight by being made to wear blacked-out goggles for prolonged periods when this had no security purpose
It also described as "ill treatment" an interrogator banging a tent peg on a table and walking around a blindfolded detainee blowing on the back of his neck.
In addition:
The inquiry was also critical of the medical neglect of some of the prisoners who had been wounded during the battle.
A corporal who examined one Iraqi, who had a number of shrapnel wounds in his legs and a penetrating gunshot wound in his right foot, did not consider that he needed to be seen by a doctor.
When this prisoner was moved to another detention centre the next day, he was examined by a regimental medical officer, Maj David Winfield, who was expected to decide whether detainees were “fit for detention and questioning”. Winfield accepted that there was no record that he had prescribed any pain relief, despite the man being obviously in pain.
Forbes concludes that Winfield had been “somewhat dismissive in his attitude to the welfare of the detainees … he showed very little sympathy for the detainees as patients”, and that he had been “going through the motions … rather than giving them the attention of a caring doctor”.
These actions are possible contraventions of the detainees' rights under the Geneva Conventions and articles of the European Convention on Human Rights which prohibits torture and "cruel and unusual treatment". Blindfolding and deprivation of food and sleep were banned by a European Court of Human Rights case in the 1970s (Ireland vs the United Kingdom in a case known as the "
five techniques" ruling) and had been incorporated into British military law. It would appear that the training given had taken account of these but an individual had either misinterpreted the instruction (by shouting in the detainee's ear during questioning) or had acted deliberately (by keeping the blindfolds on longer than was necessary for security reasons to "soften up" before questioning).
I am equally ashamed that the political response to the laying of the report before Parliament has been to focus on the false allegations of murder. I take some comfort from the changes to military guidance that have already been made and hope that all of Sir Thayne's recommendations are rapidly enacted.
The abused detainees may well have been found to have been involved in the fighting and have withdrawn financial claims but they are owed the nation's apologies for their mistreatment. (So too are the soldiers against who allegations of murder were made.) In a famous speech before the invasion started, Colonel Tim Collins of the Royal Irish Regiment admonished his troops in part:
I know of men who have taken life needlessly in other conflicts.
I can assure you they live with the mark of Cain upon them.
If someone surrenders to you then remember they have that right in international law and ensure that one day they go home to their family.
If you harm the regiment or its history by over-enthusiasm in killing or in cowardice, know it is your family who will suffer.
You will be shunned unless your conduct is of the highest - for your deeds will follow you down through history.
We will bring shame on neither our uniform or our nation.
For some soldiers, the shadow of the Mark of Cain has been lifted. Others have failed to meet the standard of conduct the nation expects of them. I hope they will be subject to the appropriate sanctions under civil and military law and the professional standards regulations of the British Medical Council. May their deeds follow them down history. They have brought shame to their uniforms and the United Kingdom.
3:34 PM PT: I've now sent the first and last paragraph of the diary and its address as an email to the office of the Deputy Prime Minister, along with the hope that Sir Thane's full recommendations be implemented immediately.