The mother of a teenage soldier killed in Iraq broke down on Friday as she told an inquiry she wanted former British prime minister Tony Blair to be held to account for the “illegal war.”
Anne Donnachie, whose son Rifleman Paul Donnachie was killed in Basra in April 2007, was among a number of families addressing the Iraq inquiry committee at a regional meeting in Bristol.
Earlier this month in a similar meeting in London, Sir John Chilcot, the committee chairman who had invited the bereaved families to tell him the issues they believe he should focus on, was left in no doubt what they wanted investigated — legality, equipment and the role of Blair.
On Friday, it was the turn of Donnachie to add her voice to the growing clamor for accountability, as committee members Sir Roderick Lyne, Sir Lawrence Freedman and Sir Martin Gilbert looked on.
Accompanied by her husband James, she wept as she made her plea. Echoing the sentiments expressed earlier in the hearing by the family of Territorial Army soldier Corporal Dewi Pritchard, who was killed in Basra in 2003, she said: “I lost my son and he was only 18, and I blame Tony Blair.”
Donnachie, from Reading, Berkshire, who served with 2nd Battalion The Rifles, was killed by small arms fire during a routine patrol in the Ashar district of Basra City on April 29, two years ago, during one of the worst periods of fighting in the area since the start of the conflict.
Pritchard, 35, from Rhondda, south Wales, was one of three military police officers who died when their civilian 4x4 vehicle was ambushed by gunmen.
His uncle, Brynley Pritchard, spoke on behalf of his family, including the soldier’s father Tony, who also attended.
He told the committee: “We believe the war on Iraq was wrong and unlawful. The UK and US could not justify getting it past the UN because of vetoes by other member countries.”
“So we believe a conspiracy was formed by Tony Blair and [US] President [George W.] Bush to invade Iraq under the pretense that [then-Iraqi president] Saddam Hussein had an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction and was preparing to use them against other countries of the world,” he said..
“We believe the true reason for the war was to protect the oil-producing countries of the Middle East and was therefore motivated by greed. The protection of the oil fields could have been done by the UN and this could have saved 179 British personnel, numerous United States personnel and countless Iraqi civilians,” he said.
“Mr Blair should be taken to task by the UK judicial system for lying in parliament,” he added.
The inquiry’s meetings with 50 of the bereaved families will end in Belfast on Wednesday. In addition to Bristol and London, it met in Edinburgh and Manchester.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese