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[ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ] for those paying attention to the treatment of the savages by the civilized. Roger Stroope Austin College Sherman Texas, USA www.austincollege.edu To: <Peoples_War@yahoogroups.com> Cc: <Anti-War-News@yahoogroups.com>, <iac-discussion@yahoogroups.com> From: "Stasi" <stasi@lineone.net> Mailing-List: list iac-discussion@yahoogroups.com; contact iac-discussion-owner@yahoogroups.com Delivered-To: mailing list iac-discussion@yahoogroups.com Precedence: bulk Date: Sun, 1 Jun 2003 13:53:46 +0100 Subject: [iac-disc.] Twenty Iraqi POW's claim abuse by coalition troops - Sunday Times Twenty Iraqis claim abuse by coalition troops =============================== Dipesh Gadher and Jonathon Carr-Brown SUNDAY TIMES MORE than 20 Iraqi prisoners of war have accused British and American troops of mistreating them in custody. Amnesty International, the human rights group, has been presented with complaints ranging from allegations of prisoners being kicked and beaten with weapons to the application of electric shocks. The organisation, which is seeking to corroborate the claims, believes some of the acts described constitute torture and could be in flagrant breach of international law. The new allegations come in the wake of a Ministry of Defence (MoD) probe into claims that a group of British soldiers photographed themselves "torturing" Iraqi captives. The government has sought to contrast the fair conduct of British troops with the brutal methods used by the deposed Iraqi regime. Tonight the BBC will broadcast controversial footage of the bodies of two British bomb disposal experts who were killed by Iraqi militiamen following an ambush in southern Iraq. The decision to air the seven-second clip, originally shown by Al-Jazeera, the Arab satellite news channel, has angered the families of Staff Sergeant Simon Cullingworth and Sapper Luke Allsopp. However, the BBC claims the footage, in which the dead soldiers' faces have been obscured, is "in the public interest" as it highlights the difference in news values between Al-Jazeera and western broadcasters. During the war Tony Blair claimed the two men had been executed, but military personnel told their families they had been killed in action. This weekend it emerged that Khalid Barour, a senior Ba'ath party official arrested in connection with their deaths, has been released without charge. The MoD investigation into the "torture photos" scandal was triggered last week after an 18-year-old soldier handed in a film at a processing laboratory in Tamworth, Staffordshire. One of the photographs appears to show a gagged and bound Iraqi prisoner suspended by rope from a fork-lift truck being driven by a laughing soldier. Other pictures apparently show British soldiers forcing semi-naked PoWs to engage in sex acts, real or simulated. Last night, Gary Bartlam, the soldier from the 1st Battalion the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers who handed in the film, was being questioned by military police. Investigators are believed to be interviewing other members of Bartlam's eight-man unit and may question other men in the battalion. Kelly Tilford, who developed the film, said: "I felt sick when I looked at the pictures. I immediately realised something terribly wrong had happened and something had to be done." Those involved in mistreating PoWs could face military prison as well as a dishonourable discharge. Evidence that abuse of PoWs was widespread would be highly damaging to a government already reeling from claims that it put pressure on the security services to "sex up" a dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction to justify the war. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> <FONT COLOR="#000099">Get A Free Psychic Reading! Your Online Answer To Life's Important Questions. </FONT><A HREF="http://us.click.yahoo.com/Lj3uPC/Me7FAA/ySSFAA/WfTolB/TM"><B>Click Here!</B></A> ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> ------------------------------------------------- *** Iraq Action Coalition Discussion Forum *** http://iraqaction.org/discussion.html ------------------------------------ *To Post a message, send it to: iac-discussion@eGroups.com *To Subscribe, send a blank message to: iac-discussion-subscribe@eGroups.com *To Unsubscribe, send a blank message to: iac-discussion-unsubscribe@eGroups.com * To see the List Guidelines, go to: http://iraqaction.org/discussion.html *Any questions, contact the List Moderator at rmasri@leb.net ----------------------------------------------- Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk