A dossier accusing British forces of killing detainees and carrying out sexual assault, mock executions, electrocution and beatings during the Iraq conflict has been presented to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The 250 page dossier could lead to some of Britain’s most senior defence officials facing prosecution for “systematic” war crimes. Those named in the report include: General Sir Peter Wall, head of the British Army, former defence minister Adam Ingram and former defence secretary Geoff Hoon.
The dossier, compiled by The European Centre for Constitutional Human Rights, contains more than 1000 allegations of torture and 200 unlawful killings, some whilst in custody. The dossier states that “(h)undreds of abuse allegations, spanning across time, technique and location indicate that the UK military had a sustained policy of committing abuse against Iraqi detainees in order to prepare them for interrogation.”
Wolfgang Kaleck of the European Centre for Constitutional Human Rights said: “Double standards in international criminal justice must end. War crimes and other severe violations of human rights must be investigated and prosecuted, regardless of whether they are committed by the most powerful.”
The British Ministry of Defence says it rejects the suggestion that UK armed forces have systematically tortured detainees.
The document, entitled "The Responsibility of UK Officials for War Crimes Involving Systematic Detainee Abuse in Iraq from 2003-2008", compiles the testimonies of over 400 Iraqis. Those testimonies constitute “thousands of allegations of mistreatment amounting to war crimes of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.” The alleged crimes include “hooding prisoners, electric shocks, burning, sexual assault, cultural and religious humiliation, rape and simulated executions.”
The report directs blame for the acts at individuals “at the highest levels” of the UK defence forces and political system, alleging that those in command were, or should have been, aware of the crimes being perpetrated and yet failed to act against the soldiers committing the acts. The report claims that the British military and government “has failed to sufficiently investigate and prosecute its high ranking civilian and military officials.”
Former British Commander Richard Kemp rejects the idea that crimes on the battlefield go unpunished, asserting that indiscipline in the military has been dealt with by the British judicial system: “Of course there are cases, individual cases, where soldiers overstep the mark, where soldiers do what they shouldn’t do, sometimes in quite a serious way. But when that happens, as we’ve seen in a number of recent cases, it gets dealt with by the British judicial system.”
