Iraq abuse cases dismissed by UK military police

Only three court-martials have resulted from 213 investigations conducted by Britain's Royal Military Police over the behaviour of troops in Iraq since the invasion in March 2003, UK Defense Secretary Des Browne has revealed.

Of the 213 investigations, 195 were closed without any further action, Browne told MPs in a written parliamentary reply published Friday.

He said that specifically 41 investigations related to the death or ill-treatment of Iraqi detainees, but of these 35 cases had been closed due to insufficient evidence.

Of the other six, two were dealt with by court-martials and one case was currently being tried by court martial. Two cases were referred to the Army Prosecution Authority (APA), but which decided not to institute court-martial proceeding.

The remaining case did go to court-martial but was then referred to the state's Crown Prosecution Authority, which decided not to prefer charges.

In his reply, Browne said that he did not know the total number of complaints of abuse had been made by Iraqi detainees as the information was "not held centrally." But he pointed out that since the Divisional Temporary Detention Facility was established in December 2003 there have been "no deaths or injuries as a result of the actions of UK personnel guarding the facility." Last week, the APA announced that nine British soldiers will not be prosecuted for allegedly beating Iraqi youths two years ago as there was not enough evidence despite video footage appearing to show they were punched, kicked and headbutted.

Meantime, as many as 23 British troops may have committed suicide while or after serving in Iraq up to the end of 2005, according to the latest official figures. "Between 18 January 2003 and 31 December 2005, there were 17 coroner-confirmed suicides or open verdict deaths among UK regular armed forces deployed on Operation Telic" in Iraq, Defense Minister Derek Twigg said.