Downing Street Says » Abuse Photographs

Asked what the Prime Minister’s view was on the release of photographs, the PMOS replied that like Sir General Mike Jackson, he could not risk an ongoing judicial process by commenting on the cases in any way. What he could say, however, and as he had said in the past where his view was very clear, was any kind of abuse was unacceptable and would not be tolerated. What was important was the activities of all those who had served in Iraq should not judged by allegation against a few. It was the activity of the majority of soldiers that should be recognised, while at the same time, making it clear not only within the Army, the country and more widely that abuse of any kind would not be tolerated.

Asked if there was any plan to try and get the message across to the people of Iraq, the PMOS said Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya television stations had received statements on the position that we did not tolerate abuse of any kind.

Asked if the British Army used any kind of "humiliation or roughing up" like the US Army did, the PMOS said he was not going to comment on American policy. What he would say was we had always abided by international procedures as was reflected by our own rules. We enforced those rules within the Army.

Asked how General Sir Mkie Jackson could say with any conviction that this was a "one-off", the PMOS replied that again, he did not want to comment about an individual case, but in general, we did not believe that there was any evidence of any systematic abuse within the Army. We had always expressed, and as General Sir Mike Jackson had done at the time when the allegations had first emerged, the determination to follow up any evidence at al of abuse. We also appealed to people who had reports of abuse to come forward.

Put to him that the only reason this case came about was by an alert shop assistant discovering the pictures being developed, the PMOS said the Army had made it clear that if within the Army there were allegations being made, then they would be pursued.

Asked how many more cases were in the pipeline, the PMOS said there were 7 open investigations involving some 20 soldiers being handled by the military. He stressed it was wrong to make any presumptions about a guilty verdict. There was one further case that would have a CPS decision.

Asked if someone broke the Geneva Convention would they be disciplined, the PMOS relied he was not going to get hypothetical. He repeated that we recognised international rules and applied them through our own procedures. With regards to individual cases, the PMOS said he preferred to leave it to the MOD.

Asked about a report last night that claimed the Prime Minister had considered resigning over the latest set of photographs, the PMOS said he did not recognise the report, as they had told the reporter who made the claim at the time of the broadcast.

Asked when the Prime Minister first viewed the latest set of photos, the PMOS said yesterday, like everyone else.

1 Comment »

The behaviour of the few does in principle support the behaviour of the masses. In as much as the Government, democratically elected, represented the people in the war against Iraq, which appears to me a somewhat contentious issue. Certanly there have been abuses, both before and after occupation, but the responsibilty of the soldiers that have abused after occupation lies soley with those that authorised said occupation. Before the war, the allies were not responsible for any atrocity. However, I do not, in all good concience believe that that is the case now, and those who chose to take the responsibity on behalf of their countries and the opposing forces should realise that any abuse by an allied troop is a direct consequence of their own actions.

Something had to be done in Iraq, I just question the application of the western worlds reaction to something that wasnt really our business.

Apologies for my bad spelling, I am learning Swedish which is more intuitively spellt
Comment by Ugglan — 18 Feb 2005 on 1:38 pm | Link

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» Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Abuse Photographs

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