Britain Shocked by Photos of Prisoner Abuse

The British public awoke Wednesday to graphic photographs in national newspapers apparently showing their troops abusing Iraqi prisoners in scenes reminiscent of the Abu Ghraib images that shocked the world last year.

Released in connection with the court-martial in Germany of three soldiers with the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, the series of 22 pictures set off a round of anguished statements by national leaders denouncing the apparent abuse but defending in general the honor and integrity of the 9,000 British troops in Iraq.

Gen. Mike Jackson, the chief of the British army, called a rare news conference to “condemn utterly all acts of abuse.”

“We have always made clear that the proper way of dealing with allegations of abuse by the armed forces is for them to be investigated by the service police and, as appropriate, prosecuted by the independent service authorities,” he said.

“I have every confidence in the military investigative and judicial system.”

The pictures, taken of detainees arrested in the southern Iraqi city of Basra in May 2003, show bound detainees being threatened and forced to simulate sexual acts. One photograph shows a soldier in combat boots apparently preparing to kick an Iraqi trussed up in netting and lying in a puddle of water.

A few photographs of British soldiers apparently abusing Iraqi detainees appeared in newspapers last year, including one incident in which the images later proved to have been staged. Wednesday’s photos, however, were the first widely distributed that showed scenes of British soldiers forcing prisoners to simulate sex acts and threatening them with kicks and punches.

“Everyone finds those photographs shocking and appalling, and there are simply no other words to describe them,” Prime Minister Tony Blair told Parliament on Wednesday. However, he added, the “vast majority” of British servicemen in Iraq had served “with courage and great honor.”

A military affairs expert, British retired Maj. Charles Heyman, said the photos constituted “a public relations disaster for the British army and for coalition activities in southern Iraq.”

“It will have the same effect across the region as the Abu Ghraib photos have had,” Heyman said. “It has done us no favors whatsoever, and if found guilty these soldiers should be exposed to the full rigors of the law.”

Menzies Campbell, a leading lawmaker with the Liberal Democrats and an opponent of the Iraq war, said the photos might have political fallout for Blair, who hopes to secure a third term in this year’s general election.

“Every time the prime minister believes that Iraq has gone quiet, it comes right back up the political agenda once again,” Campbell said in a telephone interview.

“The run-up to the [Iraqi] elections on the 30th of January was always going to be difficult, even in the relatively quiet southern part of Iraq for which the British have responsibility,” he said. “But the worldwide publication of these photographs and in particular their impact in Iraq may well make a difficult job even more burdensome.”

The court-martial, which is continuing in Osnabruck, Germany, involves a corporal and two lance corporals who face a total of nine charges of abuse. If found guilty, the men face prison sentences and dismissal from the army with disgrace.

One of the three has pleaded guilty to a count of battery, denying other charges. The other two have denied all guilt. The charges include military misconduct, cruelty and indecent conduct.

The Iraqis had been rounded up in an operation against looters in Basra, and the soldiers had been ordered to bring them back to their camp with the intention of “working them hard,” according to prosecutors.

However, the prosecution said, the defendants took the detainees to a distant corner of the camp and subjected them to various abuses, including tying them up in camouflage netting, stripping them and forcing them to simulate sex acts.

The alleged abuses came to light after a serviceman who had taken photographs returned to Britain and took his film to be processed in his hometown of Tamworth.

In general, the British army has won respect in the Arab world for its professionalism and its humane treatment of civilians in Iraq, especially compared with the U.S. Army, said Ahmed Versi, editor of the London-based Muslim News, the largest ethnic newspaper in Britain with 27,000 subscribers. But this incident will take some of the sheen off its reputation, he said.

“I think it is going to be very damaging, but not as much as the Abu Ghraib pictures were for the Americans, because they [the British photos] are not as bad,” Versi said. “One would assume there are some human rights abuses in all armies. But if we do not have many more cases, then the damage will be less -- especially if justice is seen to be done and there is no cover-up.”

Eight low-ranking U.S. soldiers have been charged in the Abu Ghraib scandal. Spc. Charles A. Graner Jr. was sentenced Saturday to 10 years in prison for abusing detainees. Four others have pleaded guilty, and received from eight years in prison to no time at all. Trials of three others are expected to be held this year.

Britain provides the second-largest foreign military contingent in Iraq, after the U.S., and about 75 British soldiers have been killed since the war began in March 2003.

In a development related to British efforts against terrorism, a senior Cabinet member said Wednesday that the government might deport some of the 12 suspects held under indefinite incarceration at London’s Belmarsh Prison and another facility. The policy of holding terrorism subjects without charges or sentences recently was ruled unlawful by the country’s highest judicial authority, the Law Lords in the upper house of Parliament.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke told the Times of London newspaper that he was seeking a deal with several countries to take the suspects, who are from Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan, based on guarantees that they would not be tortured or sentenced to death.

In an interview with the Times, Clarke said talks being conducted by Foreign Secretary Jack Straw were proceeding “in a very positive way” but that such deportations were only a partial solution to the objections raised by the Law Lords to some sections of Britain’s anti-terrorism law.