Saddam Hussein subjected Britons to almost 2,000 war crimes following the 1990 Kuwait invasion; secret document
Shafaq News/ Saddam Hussein’s regime committed 2,000 war crimes against Britons following Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait, a report kept secret for 30 years reveals today.
Records released to the National Archives show the extent to which those seized during the Gulf War by the dictator’s forces – mostly civilians – were murdered, tortured and raped.
Some had electric shocks applied to their head and testicles.
The report, compiled by Special Branch investigators with the Royal Military Police in 1992, says there is ‘compelling evidence of systematic breaches’ of the Geneva Convention by Iraq, with 1,373 Britons held hostage, including 556 used as ‘human shields’.
More than 300 of these were on a British Airways flight that landed in Kuwait just as Saddam invaded.
Last month Foreign Secretary Liz Truss apologised, admitting that ministers had been aware of the invasion but did not tell BA to divert the aircraft.
Many on board claim the flight was not stopped because it was carrying a Special Forces intelligence-gathering team.
Yesterday a Government spokesman again denied this.
Eight held as human shields died as a result of their treatment, from heart attacks or suicide, after being released.
Investigators from ‘Operation Sand Castle’ interviewed 1,868 witnesses and took a further 725 statements.
They found 1,944 offences had been committed against British subjects and a further 1,506 against persons of other nationalities.
The report concluded that there was ‘considerable and compelling evidence of systematic and grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention [designed to protect civilians during wartime] committed by the Iraqi authorities, members of the Iraqi armed forces and their collaborators against the personal and property rights of British subjects.’
The report reveals that eight people held as human shields died as a result of their treatment, either from heart attacks or suicide after being released by Saddam. Ten Britons were victims of attempted murder.
It added that ‘the gratuitous use of violence by the Iraqi authorities and their collaborators to achieve their ends appears to have known no bounds.’
Four Britons were subjected to ‘inhuman treatment’, including former Royal Marine Douglas Brand and his associate Patrick Trigg, who were captured when they tried to leave Kuwait.
The pair said they were routinely beaten and had electric shocks applied to their head and testicles.
The report also details the ‘severe beatings’ handed out to five captured Special Forces operatives, who were ‘randomly and gratuitously assaulted by their guards.’
This is believed to refer to the Bravo Two Zero mission later recounted by Chris Ryan and Andy McNab in bestselling books.
It adds that the men were ‘beaten with canes, pieces of wood or improvised whips.’
‘Although such assaults sometimes took place during interrogation, it is clear that the beatings were aimed at breaking the soldiers’ spirits and will to resist, rather than by way of torture to extract specific information,’ the Sand Castle memo details.
(Daily Mail)
