London, Jan 25, IRNA ,An official report into allegations and proven mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners admitted Friday there were serious flaws in military training but denied there was any evidence of systematic abuse by UK troops.
“We were very well prepared for war fighting and achieving military aims in Iraq in 2003,” said Brigadier Robert Aitken, the director of Army personnel strategy, who led the inquiry.
“But we were not as prepared as we could have been for dealing with civilian detainees and dealing with the lawless, fluid environment we found ourselves in,” the brigadier admitted.
But he insisted that he was not talking about “an endemic problem” but only “a few individual instances where people behaved
disgracefully.”
“Personnel were trained in humanitarian law and specifically how to deal with prisoners of war, and our processes were pretty good and sophisticated. People weren’t trained though to deal with incidents of ordinary criminality such as looting,” he said.
The report, which follows allegations of abuse, including the case of Barsa hotel worker, Baha Mousa, who died in British custody with 93 injuries in 2003, identified areas for development to ensure that such events will never be repeated.
Aitken said that the findings were “going to make uncomfortable reading for one or two people in the Army,” but he insisted there was “no evidence of endemic abuse as a normal form of practice in Iraq between 2003 and 2004.”
“We now have to encapsulate in our people a better understanding of what is right and wrong, and not by learning the core values parrot-fashion but really understanding what they mean,” he said.
Head of the British Army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, welcomed the report, which he believed “pulls no punches and is very open and honest.”
“This report is rightly critical of our performance in a number of areas and it catalogues the significant number of steps we have already taken towards ensuring that such behaviour is not repeated,” Dannatt said.
“I very much regret the incidents and proven cases of abuse in Iraq in 2003/2004,” he added.
Defence Secretary Des Browne also said that they were extremely important issues for the Army and said he supported the actions taken “to try and prevent any recurrence.”
“The British public should be reassured that such behaviour is not representative of our thoroughly professional and disciplined armed forces,” Browne added.