If the UK can start adopting a “shoot to kill” policy against anyone it suspects of terrorism, then British soldiers should face similar justice in Iraq.
**UK war crime charges ‘tip of the iceberg’ **
War crime charges against British soldiers in Iraq are only the tip of the iceberg, the lawyer for the alleged victims said on Wednesday. Three British soldiers have been charged with war crimes for the alleged abuse of Iraqi detainees in the first case of its kind in Britain, the government said on Tuesday. The Attorney General Lord Goldsmith said eight other British soldiers, including a former colonel, will also face military tribunals in connection with the alleged abuse. None of those charged will go before the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Lawyer Phil Shiner, acting for nine alleged victims in the case, said: “The announcement of the charges for war crimes is only the tip of the iceberg.” He said the families “welcome the first steps towards justice of those responsible. However, this is only a start.”
The British military has insisted that the vast majority of its soldiers uphold the highest standards and only a few are guilty of any crimes. None of the defendants have publicy commented on the allegations, the Ministry of Defence said. Shiner alleged that many British servicemen were involved in the cases and said the nine Iraqi men were tortured over a period of days by several shifts of soldiers. “There is evidence that more officers were complicit and should be charged with war crimes,” Shiner added. Britain, Washington’s key ally in Iraq, has investigated scores of deaths and injuries of Iraqis since joining the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Its army chief apologized to the Iraqi people in February after three British soldiers were jailed for abusing Iraqi detainees in a case that drew comparisons with the mistreatment of Iraqis by U.S. troops at the Abu Ghraib prison.
In the latest case of alleged abuse, one of the soldiers, Corporal Donald Payne, 34, was charged with the war crime of the inhumane treatment of Iraqi detainee Baha Musa, who died in custody in the southern city of Basra in September 2003. Payne, of the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment, was also charged with killing Musa unlawfully and perverting the course of justice. Two others – Lance Corporal Wayne Crowcroft, 21, and Private Darren Fallon, 22, both of the 1st Battalion the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment – were jointly charged with the war crime of abusing Iraqi civilians. Brigadier Geoffrey Sheldon of the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment said the death of Baha Musa was “an isolated tragic incident which should never have happened.” He hinted at some bitterness within the regiment over how the case developed. Among the accused is Colonel Jorge Mendonca who initiated the formal inquiry into Musa’s death. “It is therefore particularly difficult for us to learn that Colonel Mendonca must himself now answer charges a result,” Sheldon said.