|
Basra cuts ties with UK troops
Military police today arrested two more soldiers in connection with the video showing the apparent abuse of Iraqi civilians by British troops.The arrests - which bring the number detained up to three - came as the fallout from the footage saw the provincial council in Basra suspend relations with the British. The video, filmed in the restive town of Amara in the Maysan province, just north of Basra, in January 2004 appeared to show defenceless young Iraqis being kicked and attacked with batons, to the apparent amusement of the cameraman. New footage broadcast by the BBC last night suggested a "snatch squad" of British troops had plucked a number of Iraqi demonstrators from a crowd of protesters. Military police yesterday arrested a corporal from the 1st Battalion the Light Infantry as part of an investigation into the alleged abuse. He was last night named as Corporal Martin Webster. The Ministry of Defence would not confirm whether he had been arrested as a suspect or a witness. In a statement tonight to announce the two additional arrests, the MoD said the investigation was still in its early stages but significant progress had been made. "The Royal Military Police have identified several people in the video and investigations are ongoing to identify all those involved in the alleged incident. "It is important to get these allegations in proportion. Our armed forces have done and continue to do an outstanding job wherever they are serving." Nadhim al-Jabiri, a Basra council official, said the suspension of ties included ending cooperation with the British consulate in Basra. The police chief, Major-General Hassan Suwadi, said Iraqi security forces would cease joint patrols with British forces in the entire region. The MoD is concerned at the possibility of a backlash against British troops in Iraq now that the video has been widely played on Arab television stations. The southern province of Basra is the base for the 8,000 British military in personnel who remain in the country. A British military spokesman, Captain James St John-Price, said that such decisions "merely work to the detriment of the people of Basra". He added it was unclear whether economic ties were also being suspended, and if police under the control of the national government in Baghdad would also cut ties. Two Iraqis claimed today they had been among those beaten in Amara, saying they would take legal action against the UK military and seek compensation. The allegations by Bassem Shaker, 27, and Tariq Abdul-Razzak, 14, were presented to the media at the office of the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who opposes the coalition forces. Mr Shaker said he was among more than 200 people demonstrating that day in protest at the lack of jobs. The crowd had been "surprised" to encounter British troops and "started throwing stones at them "because we believed that they were behind all our misery", he said. Mr Shaker said British troops fired volleys of rubber bullets at the protesters in a bid to disperse them. Witnesses and officials at the time said British troops and Iraqi police had fired at armed, stone-throwing protesters, killing six people and wounding 11. British soldiers from the 1st Battalion Light Infantry, based in Amara at the time, were seen moving in with armoured vehicles to support the police, according to witness reports at the time. Assailants in the crowd lobbed three explosive devices at them, believed to be hand grenades, the British military reported later that day. Today Mr Shaker said: "A group of British soldiers then rushed out from their base and arrested nine of us, dragging us for about 30 metres to the governor's office. "They were beating us with fists and batons and were kicking us. Then they cuffed our hands and also dragged us to their base, which is about 15 metres from the governor's office, where they also beat us and frightened us with dogs before releasing us before sunset." Mr Shaker said he did not report the abuse initially because he did not believe any officials would deal with their complaints because they involved British troops. "But when we saw this tape and the amount of anger it caused inside and outside Iraq, we decided to come today to the al-Sadr office because we need them, after God, to help us to sue the British forces and compensate us. "Those troops humiliated us and violated our rights to demand jobs." One of Mr Sadr's officials said Mr Shaker and Tariq Abdul-Razzak both claimed they had been beaten, and had requested help to sue the British military and seek compensation. Posted by: Dan Darling 2006-02-15 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=142704 |