UK jails three for Iraq abuse, but questions remain

Britain has jailed three soldiers for abusing Iraqi detainees, but faced questions over why it failed to punish anyone for forcing prisoners to simulate sex acts in photos that echoed Abu Ghraib.

A newspaper embarrassed the authorities by locating victims that prosecutors had failed to find in a 20-month probe.

Without the victims' testimony, prosecutors were unable to convict anyone for staging the sex abuse which soldiers photographed during a crackdown on looters in Basra in May 2003.

Prisoners in the photos were stripped naked and forced to simulate anal and oral sex, mirroring notorious pictures of abuse taken by US troops at the Abu Ghraib jail.

"When you abused the power that you had over them as you did, you cannot expect much leniency," Judge Advocate Michael Hunter told the men. "What you have done is so serious that we would be failing in our duties if we did not impose substantial sentences and dismiss you all (from the army) with disgrace. "

Daniel Kenyon was given an 18-month sentence for failing to report the sex abuse and two other charges. Mark Cooley was given two years for charges including suspending a trussed-up Iraqi from the prongs of a forklift truck. Darren Larkin was given five months for stomping on a bound man.

All were expelled from the army in disgrace.

But the five-week trial at a base in Germany found no one to punish for staging the sex photos, the worst abuse in the case.

None of the other soldiers in the unit provided evidence to prove who posed the sex pictures, and prosecutors said Iraqi victims could not be found to testify who had abused them.

But Britain's Independent newspaper said it had found four Iraqi victims within 48 hours, all within a mile of the base.

"They made us do things that were bad. We refused but they hit us. I feel ashamed by what they made us do," Ali Radhi Kassim, who appeared in one picture forced to pose naked simulating anal sex with another prisoner, told the paper.

"They treated us very badly. This is our country but they treated us like animals," said Hassan Kardham Adulhussein, who identified himself as the man stomped upon by Larkin. All said they were severely beaten and some suffered broken bones.

The chief of Britain's army, General Sir Mike Jackson, apologised to the victims and the Iraqi people, and announced an inquiry into lessons that could be learned. But he offered no explanation for why investigators failed to locate the victims.

"I am advised the military police went to great lengths to track down those who had been abused in this incident," he said. "I cannot surmise why those Iraqi civilians did not come forward to the military police but chose to come forward to a reporter. "

Questions were also raised about the failure to charge commanding officers. One major acknowledged during the trial he had violated the Geneva Conventions by ordering that suspected looters be "worked hard". Defence lawyers said the low-ranked soldiers were scapegoats for failures of their commanders.

The abuse pictures came to light after another soldier, Gary Bartlam, brought his film to a photo shop in Britain to be developed and technicians alerted the police. He received an 18-month sentence for taking the pictures and aiding in the forklift incident, after pleading guilty at an earlier trial.

But sex abuse charges against him were lifted in return for testimony against the others, which failed to yield a single sex abuse conviction.

Bartlam's photos were taken earlier than the photos which led to the US military's scandal at Abu Ghraib. But when they were made public during the trial this month the similar sexual content made comparison unavoidable.

During the trial Prime Minister Tony Blair said he was appalled, prompting the defence to call for a mistrial.

British military prosecutors are taking action in four other cases of alleged abuse of civilians.

- REUTERS