Hoon ‘diverting attention from abuse’

THE Daily Mirror newspaper said yesterday that Britain’s Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon’s comments about the photographs they published were obviously designed to divert attention from the bigger and more important issue of the abuse of Iraqi detainees by British troops.

The newspaper released a statement saying: “The Ministry of Defence has had eight days to try and discredit the pictures, and the very serious incident of abuse they illustrate, and the best they can do is now suggest there are “indications” that this type of van may not have been in Iraq at the time.

“On that specific point, we have testimony from soldiers A and B that this type of van WAS in Iraq at the time. We have also had independent confirmation from both Soldiers C and D to the same effect.

“We remain absolutely confident that those pictures accurately illustrate a serious abuse of a detainee by members of the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment. And we note that Mr Hoon does not deny the incident happened.

“But Mr Hoon knows, as we all know, that this debate is no longer about one set of photographs depicting one incident.

“It is about whether British soldiers abused Iraqis in direct contravention of the Geneva Convention.

“We have now produced a welter of evidence that they did, on numerous occasions, evidence that Mr Hoon has singularly failed to address.

“The Red Cross and Amnesty International have also made it clear that abuse took place and they brought this to the attention of the authorities months ago.”