League : Mousa case proves brutality and torture still rife in British Army

The British Army has not improved its human rights record. The same brutality, torture techniques and murderous practices that it has conducted in every 'internal security' campaign it has been deployed in since World War 2 are still condoned.

Abusive practices and torture techniques that were supposedly outlawed after their exposure in Northern Ireland over thirty years ago were again used in Iraq - and for all we know are still being practised in Afghanistan.

In the latest humiliation the Ministry of Defence have grudgingly accepted that "it breached the human rights of an Iraqi hotel worker who died in British custody" (this is 'Orwellian-speak' which means that uniformed thugs of the British Army tortured to death in the most brutal manner a totally innocent man). It is understood that substantial compensation, which could reach £1 million, may now be paid.

Another eight Iraqis will also now probably receive substantial pay-outs after the MoD admitted they were abused and beaten, whilst in detention, by troops from the Queen's Lancashire Regiment following a raid on a Basra hotel after the 2003 invasion.

The hotel worker who died, Baha Mousa, suffered 93 separate injuries during lengthy beatings before he died in custody. The Ministry of Defence have fought 'tooth and nail' to resist efforts by the family and those acting for them to see justice done and to this day these 'heroes' who brutally beat Mousa to death have still not been held to account and probably are still on active service.

Paradoxically, whilst Defence Secretary, Des Browne, is issuing a grovelling admission about the shameful behaviour of British troops in Iraq, the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has suggested that returning troops should be feted, encouraged to wear their uniforms in public and allowed to publicly parade through their garrison towns.

J B Moffatt Director of Information Celtic League

29/03/08