Written by Ramona Wadi; Originally appeared on strategic-culture.org
On May 13 2014, the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) Chief Prosecutor announced it would reopen the investigations into alleged war crimes committed by British soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, following additional submitted information pertaining to the investigation which had been concluded in 2006.
A recent BBC Panorama investigation, in collaboration with the Sunday Times, ascertained a cover-up by the UK government of British soldiers torturing and murdering Iraqi and Afghan civilians, including children since 2003, when the UK participated alongside the US in invading Iraq under the pretext of the so-called “war on terror”.
In 2010, the Iraq Historic Allegations Team (IHAT) was tasked with investigating allegations of abuse in Iraq, with the possibility of prosecuting the perpetrators. However, mismanagement and corruption within the body, including claims that solicitor Phil Shiner had paid people to find clients for IHAT, failed to open a single case from its investigations. For the UK’s Ministry of Defence, the allegations against IHAT were an opportune moment to discredit the claims of human rights violations committed by British troops. Rather than prioritise the allegations of human rights violations, IHAT was deemed harmful and “making soldiers on the battlefield anxious about later legal repercussions.”
In a 2018 report issued by the ICC, UK soldiers are alleged to have committed war crimes against 61 Iraqis in custody, including killings, torture, rape and sexual violence. Seven deaths occurred in custody and 54 victims died of “mistreatment”. The ICC report specifies: “At this stance, these incidents should not be considered as either complete or exhaustive, but rather illustrative of the alleged criminal conduct.”
In July 2019, the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) submitted a follow-up to the ICC Prosecutor, informing the office about the UK’s failure to investigate or prosecute those responsible for war crimes, “despite significant and growing evidence indicating that liability extends up the chain of command to senior military and civilian officials.” The ECCHR also described the closing down of IHAT as a politically motivated decision to avoid ICC prosecution.
The UK’s intention was clearly to preserve its impunity. During the course of the BBC investigation, it was revealed that “The Ministry of Defence (MoD) had no intention of prosecuting any soldier of whatever rank he was unless it was absolutely necessary, and they couldn’t wriggle their way out of it.” Among the concealed crimes, a soldier from an SAS unit shot 4 Afghan civilians, three of them children, in the head, while they were in their own home, drinking tea. “When I entered the room, the bones, teeth, blood and brain were all over the place,” a witness to the aftermath stated. The UK government dismissed the war crime allegation by stating the four Afghans were Taliban suspects and commanders.
Other war crimes were concealed through fabricated evidence in order to evade such classification. Evidence of sexual abuse was also revealed to have occurred at Camp Stephen in Basra, Iraq, which was under the command of the Black Watch.
If the ICC does investigate the UK government for these violations of the Geneva Convention, it would have set a precedent, given that the Court has, so far, focused on investigating the leaders of African nations as opposed to the crimes of Western governments and foreign intervention. The “war on terror” is characterised by two main factors – perpetual aggression and extended impunity for the perpetrators. Justice for the Iraqi and Afghan people, by now, is worse than a macabre farce. Yet the ICC must fulfil its duty to lay bare the dynamics that have so far shielded the UK military and governmental collaboration from judicial scrutiny.
Drag those filthy AngloZioNazi-War-Criminals, Bankrobbers, Organ-Traders, Drug-Producers, Paedophiles & Kidkillers to Court…when found guilty: HANG EM HIGH!
Although off topic, the article below does fit in with the above. Will the Governments behind the chemical weapon false flags over in Syria, ever face justice?
PETER HITCHENS: My secret meeting with mole at the heart of The Great Poison Gas Scandal…https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-7742255/PETER-HITCHENS-secret-meeting-mole-heart-Great-Poison-Gas-Scandal.html
Yeah, If you are that stupid and ignirant that you belive the ICC will take down perpetratores of international criminals, like the scums created by the west, I have some bridges to sell you, buy two and I throw in one for free, its my own Black, eh….. sorry, sorry, colored eh….. friday.
ICC, have nothing, not even remotely conexted to anything what so ever when it comes to credibility, at all, nada, and is basically an f…. joke, and is used by the scums of this earth, and never ever takes on the true scums, like the imperial banana republic and its vassals like Norway, whom bombed Libyan civlians regardeless of the fact that the R2P did not incl open warfare on any of the parts, but when the bombing begun never the less, our FM bragged about this on the Parliament, and was extatic that our airforce could bomb whatever they wanted, and so on. The ICC is as descpeable as the UNHRC witch is lead by an Saudi-brabarian, yeah, you cant make this shit up. They even removed the death tols on the Yemen children, the Palestinians children, because of Saudi-barbaria and the terrorstate ISISrael. To cover the western worlds staggering level of hypocrasy and flat out lies, while they with impunity can humanise nations back to the stone age, and they know nothing will happen because they own this rotten institutes that is there to be what, international, huh, are they joking, we all know its just an farse, nothing else than an hideous theater of aburd.
The farse is comlet with the even more corrupt, OPCW, witch have zero credibility left, along with an row of others, and do they think we are idiots, or to be more precise, Yankikes, huh, they probably do, but then again we are just the Grey mass of matter witch they dont give an rats ass about as long the Impisses can hide behind their legitiation of wars and interventions, like Bolivia, etc, etc, etc. Nope, first time its an tragedy, second time, an downright farse. Now, they just peaked the puke factore to the limit. The fact is, we should dragg this scumbags out and hang them in the nearest possible lamp post. They are better usable as crow food that taking and ocupying any space on this planet. Like the killed Milosewitch, and lord know what and whom else.
peace