The Hindu : International : U.K. probe into 30 cases

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 07, 2004

International

International

U.K. probe into 30 cases

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, MAY 6. In an implicit acknowledgement of the growing concern over the conduct of British troops in Iraq, the Government has disclosed that it is investigating more than 30 cases of deaths, injuries and ill-treatment of Iraqi civilians in its custody.

The admission by the Armed Forces Minister, Adam Ingram, came as the Government struggled to cope with the damaging headlines generated by a set of pictures published by The Mirror newspaper showing a British soldier kicking and urinating on an Iraqi prisoner.

Mr. Ingram said the Government would leave "no stone unturned'' in investigating the allegations of torture by British troops.

He said the Mirror photographs would have `disturbed' any "decent-thinking person'' but warned that the lives of British soldiers in Iraq could be at risk if the pictures were found to be fake.

"These allegations have been aired across the Arab world and into Iraq. There is always the question of lives being put at risk because of what may prove to be unfounded allegations. So, it is on the conscience of those who have run it in this way,'' he said.

As the row over the authenticity of the pictures continued, the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, acknowledged in the Commons that the allegations were "extremely serious'' and should be "fully investigated.''

Pressure was growing on The Mirror editor, Pierce Morgan, to disclose the identity of the two serving British officers who are said to have supplied the pictures.

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