The UK Ministry of Defence is facing fresh court action over as many as 11 cases of alleged abuse of Iraqis, including the alleged sexual humiliation of a teenage boy by British soldiers at a base near Basra in 2003, it emerged on Sunday.
One allegation was that a boy of 14 was forced to carry out oral sex on another male detainee at Camp Breadbasket, a British-run camp near Basra. He has been identified only as Hassan.
Now aged 19, Hassan told of being beaten, stripped naked and forced to engage in oral sex with a close friend. He claimed that he fled Basra in shame and cannot ever see his friend again. While events at Breadbasket have been investigated by the Royal Military police, the claim made by Hassan is a new one and has prompted a fresh inquiry.
Lawyers acting for Hassan said that in a further 10 cases Iraqis suffered “severe beatings including being kicked in the face, beatings with a military car aerial, being forced to run while carrying various heavy objects including an iron cage with other Iraqis inside it.”
It is claimed that one Iraqi was ordered to sever a man’s finger with a knife. When he refused he was placed in a net and strung up on a forklift truck.
The 10 other Iraqis named in the Breadbasket case are Khadim Elaiby Jabbara, Aqeel Jassim Mohammad, Muthana Jassim Mohammad, Raa’id Attyar Ali, Bassim Kadhim Abdul-Hussain, Hassan Khadhim Abdul- Hussain, Khalid Jassim Samari, Radhi Ma’an Radhi, Riyadh Hassam Abdul-Hussain and Qasim Resan Khalaf. None of them had been interviewed by the military police in connection with the allegations, their lawyers said on Sunday.
The lawyer, Phil Shiner, has demanded that the ministry take the incidents at Breadbasket in May 2003 into the remit of the public inquiry into the death of Baha Mousa.
Last week, Mousa’s family and 10 other Iraqis were offered compensation totaling nearly £3 million (US$6 million) after an incident in Basra in September 2003 when Mousa died in the custody of British troops and nine others were abused in a British-run detention center in Basra. A court martial accused soldiers from the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment of erecting a “wall of silence.”
Six soldiers, including Colonel Jorge Mendonca, the commanding officer, were acquitted of negligence and abuse. A corporal admitted inhumane treatment. No one was convicted of killing Mousa.
The British government agreed to an independent public inquiry after Defence Secretary Des Browne said that the soldiers had breached the Human Rights Act. Lawyers wish to broaden the scope of this inquiry to include Breadbasket and have named 10 claimants in a letter to Browne.
Four soldiers were convicted at courts martial in Germany 2005 of the Breadbasket offences after photographs emerged of Iraqis being abused, including being suspended in nets from a forklift truck, and forced to adopt simulated sexual positions.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
A documentary whose main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza weeks before it premiered at Cannes stunned viewers into silence at the festival on Thursday. As the cinema lights came back on, filmmaker Sepideh Farsi held up an image of the young Palestinian woman killed with younger siblings on April 16, and encouraged the audience to stand up and clap to pay tribute. “To kill a child, to kill a photographer is unacceptable,” Farsi said. “There are still children to save. It must be done fast,” the exiled Iranian filmmaker added. With Israel
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s