Britain ‘needs bigger picture’ on Baha Mousa death
By Alex Stevenson
The Baha Mousa inquiry is being viewed as an opportunity to end “frustration” with previous investigations into the Iraqi’s death, it has been claimed.
Aonghus Kelly of Public Interest Lawyers, the firm representing Mr Mousa’s family, told politics.co.uk the independent inquiry was a chance to find out “how someone who was taken away and had done nothing wrong ended up dead”.
Mr Mousa’s body was found dead two days after his arrest by British Army soldiers serving in Basra, southern Iraq. The 26-year-old had been asphyxiated and his post-mortem showed 93 identifiable injuries.
Corporal Donald Payne became the first British soldier to admit a war crime and was jailed for 12 months for inhumanly treating Iraqi civilians in custody. He was cleared of manslaughter in his 2006 court martial, however, while six others were fully acquitted.
Mr Kelly said: “In any case of any sort, if the victims see that people they feel are responsible get away with murder. then people are going to be frustrated with that on a human level.”
He explained the inquiry needed to take a “broader perspective” to look at how those detained by British soldiers could be mistreated over the years.
“How did these techniques which were banned in the 1970s and Northern Ireland – how come they’ve mysteriously re-emerged?” he added.
Mr Kelly said there was a “great frustration” with Britain making mistakes they had done in previous conflicts, from post-war Palestine to the present day.
He added: “These mistakes continue to resurface – the ugly face of colonial techniques.”
The Baha Mousa inquiry’s oral evidence sessions begin today. They are expected to last around a year.
