Wednesday, May 14, 2008

A step closer.............

From the Guardian 14/5/08
The Ministry of Defence has announced a public inquiry into one of the most notorious episodes involving British soldiers in Iraq: the death of Baha Mousa, a hotel receptionist, and the abuse of other civilians in Basra in September 2003.
The unexpected move was announced in a written statement to the Commons this afternoon by Bob Ainsworth, the armed forces minister.
After months of bitter argument in the courts and a court martial that failed to get close to the full story of what happened, the government has decided the issue will not go away and was persuaded that an open inquiry was the best answer.
"Someone died, we must find out what happened and in what circumstances," a well-placed official told the Guardian.
Mousa, 26, died while being held for a weekend in a British detention centre. He had 93 identifiable injuries on his body and had suffered asphyxiation.