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British Troops in Iraq Beating Scandal

Posted on: Sunday, 12 February 2006, 18:00 CST

British television stations yesterday screened video footage that appeared to show British troops beating Iraqi civilians.

The images were released by the News of the World, a Sunday newspaper that earlier published still photographs of the alleged abuse.

The British Ministry of Defence said military police were investigating the allegations, and British finance minister Gordon Brown said that if the film is genuine "this is unacceptable behaviour."

"Those who are responsible will be brought to trial," Brown said.

Video clips released to British television appeared to show soldiers dragging several young Iraqis into a compound and using fists and batons to beat them. A voice apparently that of the cameraman can be heard urging the soldiers on.

The News of the World said that the scenes were filmed by a corporal described by the mass-circulation tabloid as "a rogue squad of British soldiers."

The cameraman is said to be heard laughing and saying: "Oh yes! Oh Yes! You're gonna get it. Yes, naughty little boys. You little fuckers, you little fuckers. Die. Ha Ha."

The paper quoted its informant, who allegedly provided the video footage, as saying: "These Iraqis were just kids. Most haven't even got shoes on.

"Those eight soldiers were pumped up and out of control. They're an insult to the thousands of soldiers who have worked so hard in Iraq with courage and dignity for so long.

"They're nothing but a gang of thugs, a disgrace to themselves, their regiment and country," the newspaper quoted its source as saying.

Brigadier Martin Rutledge, an army spokesman, said the images were "extremely disturbing" and would be investigated urgently.

'Tiny number'

A British military spokesman in Basra, where most of the more than 8,000 British troops in Iraq are based, stressed that the allegations relate "to only a tiny number of the 80,000 personnel that have served in Iraq."

"We condemn all acts of abuse and brutality," said Flight Lieutenant Chris Thomas.

It was unclear how news of the video will impact upon relations between British troops in southern Iraq and locals.

Thomas declined to provide details on which units were based in Basra two years ago.

In recent times, ties have been strained with some Iraqi figures complaining about British detentions of local policemen linked to numerous kidnappings and killings, as well as British security control over Basra International Airport.

British troops have been hit by abuse allegations in the past, though none approaching the scale of the abuse perpetrated by Americans against prisoners at Abu Ghraib jail in a scandal that shocked the world in 2004.

Three British soldiers were jailed last year in a case brought after the publication of pictures taken in 2003 that showed Iraqi prisoners being beaten, stomped on and forced to pose in sexually humiliating positions.

However, the Daily Mirror newspaper apologized in 2004 after acknowledging that photographs purportedly showing British soldiers abusing a hooded Iraqi had been faked.

The News of the World said it had made exhaustive checks to confirm the authenticity of the video, which it said was passed on by a whistle-blower whom the newspaper refused to identify.

"It's awful... it will cause a lot of trouble in Iraq," Labour lawmaker Jeremy Corbyn said in response to the video.

"It will also emphasize the whole point that the continued presence of British and American forces in Iraq are part of the problem, not the solution," backbencher Corbyn told British television.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour government would have to come up with something "pretty dramatic and very quick" in response, Corbyn said.

"It's not one-off, it's not isolated, it's not in detention, it's a group of soldiers attacking an individual for whatever reason in a very brutal manner," he said.

Source: China Daily; North American ed.

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