timesonline.co.uk | At least six Iraqis died while being held in British military custody during the first two months of the war in Iraq, a public inquiry has been told.
Lieutenant-Colonel Nicholas Mercer, the former head of the Army’s legal team in the country, also disclosed that there was a shortage of troops dedicated to looking after detainees and said that Britain treated the issue as a low priority, regarding it as an “inconvenience” rather than an obligation under international law.
Lieutenant-Colonel Mercer said the appointment of a British judge and an independent review body to oversee the treatment of captives would have prevented any abuse. Such a move, he claimed, was seemingly blocked by Lord Goldsmith, then Attorney-General.
Lord Goldsmith denied through a spokesman standing in the way of any measure that would have prevented abuses.
Lieutenant-Colonel Mercer, the chief legal adviser to 1st (UK) Armoured Division in the March 2003 invasion, was speaking at the inquiry into the death of Baha Musa, a hotel receptionist, in September 2003. The father-of-two died after 36 hours in custody.
“If the issue of prisoners had been properly resourced and we had been allowed to implement a proper reviewing and oversight mechanism . . . then the tragedy which unfolded might never have happened,” he said in a witness statement. He recalled his concern about a shortage of manpower when deployment of a battalion scheduled to deal with prisoners of war was cancelled because of insufficient numbers.
“Although the UK maintained that it took its responsibilities under the Geneva Convention in relation to prisoners very seriously, this was not my experience,” the officer said.
Lieutenant-Colonel Mercer described seeing 30 or 40 Iraqis in British detention hooded and with their hands cuffed behind their backs as “like seeing a picture of Guantánamo Bay for the first time”.
“It’s quite a shock”, he said. “It looked extremely uncomfortable.” He added that he immediately relayed his concerns to his superiors.
In documents and oral evidence, Lieutenant-Colonel Mercer outlined the legal battle he had with his chain of command over the use of hoods on detainees — which violates British law.
The International Committee of the Red Cross also raised concerns about the treatment of detainees in British custody. A meeting was convened with the ICRC in which certain military officials tried to justify hooding. Lieutenant-Colonel Mercer said he attended but was not allowed to speak. “I was so appalled by the attempts to justify the conduct of the United Kingdom that I walked out of the meeting and went to get some fresh air.”
Eventually, early in April 2003, an order was issued prohibiting hooding but Lieutenant-Colonel Mercer said he remained concerned that other techniques to deny sight, such as the taping of eyes, were still being used, in violation of international laws.
On May 20, 2003, the Royal Military Police’s Special Investigation Branch told him of five or six deaths of detainees in British custody that required investigation on top of an initial death that was already being examined. That same evening he issued a new order, instructing soldiers that detainees “should be treated with humanity and dignity at all times”.
Asked about the alleged deaths in British custody, the Ministry of Defence said all deaths had been thoroughly investigated and it would wait to respond to the findings of the inquiry.
The public inquiry has heard that British soldiers used “conditioning” methods on Iraqi prisoners, such as hooding and sleep deprivation, which were banned by the British Government in 1972.