UK tries high-ranks for Iraq homicides

In contrast to the US military's response to the numerous homicides occured over the past years in US custody in Iraq and Afghanistan — blame only one or two lower-ranking soldiers and civilian contractors, the British military has taken dramatic (albeit slow) steps to punish soldiers involved in two Basra homicides in 2003.

The first homicide to be tried will be the death of Iraqi hotel desk manager Baha Musa in September 2003. A group of five soldiers to be court-martialed includes a highly-decorated Col. Jorge Mendonca, the commanding officer of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment (QLR). Three of the men will be the first ever charged under the International Criminal Court Act of 2001, which essentially incorporates into English law crimes triable by the ICC, specifically "war crimes."

Two of the men to be tried are part of the Intelligence Corps. They will face charges of dereliction of duty.

A second group, not of the QLR, will be tried for manslaughter in the case of a detainee thrown in a Basra waterway.

More prosecutions for abuse are to come in September, including two more homicides. A total of 25 soldiers are under investigation or have been charged with abuses of detainees.

According to the Telegraph, the QLR homicide is signifcant because it is the only one which took place in interrogation facilities:

Operation Salerno, which started at dawn on Sept 14 2003 was a fairly routine affair, a search in strength for weapons. One of the targets was the Ibn Al Haitham hotel in Basra, where assault rifles were seized. Baha Musa, 26, the desk manager, was one of nine Iraqis arrested and taken to the QLR base.

For three days the prisoners were allegedly systematically abused, including repeated kick-boxing strikes. Shifts of soldiers were said to have taken part in beatings, but the chief offender is alleged to be Cpl Donald Payne, who is charged with manslaughter.

Payne, now attached to the King's Regiment and based at Catterick, is also alleged to have attempted to cover his crime by asking colleagues to say Mr Musa died "because he banged his own head". Mr Musa's father said his son's body was covered in bruises and blood. Other prisoners testified as to the treatment they received.

The Ministry of Defence was accused of dragging its heels in the investigation and last year became the subject of a High Court action brought by Mr Musa senior. His demand for an independent inquiry was supported by the judges in the case, a decision that may have enlivened the MoD.

The decision to pursue the case, and that against Col Mendonca in particular, angered QLR members. Some feel that using the ICC legislation, with its "war crime" terminology, inflates what may have been, at worst, the actions of a few "bad apples". There is also annoyance that the regiment, which helped expose the bogus Iraqi "torture" photographs in the Daily Mirror, is being hung out to dry by politicians in London in the interests of placating the Iraqis.