MPs launch fresh Iraqi abuse inquiry

Last updated at 14:49 09 June 2004


British MPs launched an inquiry into the role of UK troops in Iraq on Wednesday, as the government revealed the army was probing more than twice as many cases of civilian deaths as had been previously announced.

Parliament's Defence Committee said it will look at how long soldiers are likely to stay in Iraq and their interaction with civilians.

Britain is still pondering whether to send thousands more troops to Iraq although it insists no decision has been taken. Ministers say they hope most if not all soldiers will be home by the end of next year.

On Tuesday, Defence minister Adam Ingram admitted that army police had investigated more than twice as many cases of civilian deaths, injury or alleged abuse in Iraq than had been announced.

Abuse inquiries double

Correcting a statement last month that there were 33 such cases, Ingram said the true figure then was 61 and a further 14 had been launched since.

"Although we will not investigate individual allegations of abuse, an important element of our inquiry will be to examine general relations between British forces and the Iraqi civilian population," committee chairman Bruce George said in a statement.

The committee has already published one report on Iraq which elicited government admissions that not all troops had been supplied with the right protective equipment. The latest probe will not be complete until late this year.

Pictures of alleged abuse by British soldiers, splashed by a national newspaper last month, were branded fake by the government and led to the editor's dismissal.

But the International Committee of the Red Cross said last month it had handed over in February a report detailing mistreatment of Iraqi captives by U.S. and British soldiers.

Separately, human rights group Amnesty International accused the British government of undermining the rule of law in Iraq by failing properly to investigate suspected unlawful killings of Iraqi civilians by UK soldiers.

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