The Ministry of Defence has said it is investigating 33 new allegations of abuse by the UK military in Iraq.

Lawyers acting for former Iraqi detainees are calling for a full public inquiry into all abuse claims made during UK military involvement there.

One allegation is that two soldiers raped a 16-year-old boy in 2003.

Armed forces minister Bill Rammell said such claims were taken seriously but formal inquiries must be held "without judgements being made prematurely".

"Allegations of this nature are taken very seriously. However allegations must not be taken as fact," he said.

'Sexually humiliated'

A public inquiry is already under way into the death of Iraqi civilian Baha Mousa, who died in British custody with 93 separate injuries.

A report by the Independent newspaper said 33 new cases of alleged abuse had now come to light.

One claimant alleges he was raped by two British soldiers, while others say they were striped naked, abused and photographed, the Independent said.

Another detainee said that when he was arrested he was kicked and hit, and an electric baton was used on parts of his body.

A fellow Iraqi, detained in 2006, claimed he was sexually humiliated.

The lawyers said that since the British withdrawal from Basra in the summer, they had heard a host of allegations of abuse dating back to 2003.

A legal letter was given to the MoD last week by the Iraqis' lawyer, Phil Shiner.

The newspaper reports the letter as raising concerns about claims of sexual humiliation.

Mr Rammell added: "Over 120,000 British troops have served in Iraq and the vast, vast majority have conducted themselves to the highest standards of behaviour, displaying integrity and selfless commitment," he said.

"While there have been instances when individuals have behaved badly, only a tiny number of individuals have been shown to have fallen short of our high standards

Source: BBC

Are you gonna just keep suggesting they do? Or are you going to actually provide evidence of it skip? Even a chinese whisper?? A remote rumour?? something at least... I'm here and waiting.

If they do, then it's wrong, but we must keep in mind, the UK & US are in Talibaan land, not the other way 'round. Torturing an invading army, whilst not a pretty act, is a little different to a superpower that abducts people all 'round the world, often randomly, tortures them, extracts confessions from them, and then attempts to try them in kangaroo courts...

Yes war is a place that the usual 'norms of society' obviously are not kept to, but Islam has very strong restrictions on what can take place during war, and I don't think torture is permitted, would have to double check that though.

Anyway, if you'd like to make the claim they do, then you'd need to actually provide at least a case where it's been alleged. The idea that it "must" simply because it's something that often happens in war means little. All Westerners who were ever held as captives of the Talibaan and have been released or escaped have said they were treated well... so I don't think they do torture captives. Some like Yvonne Ridley even embraced Islam and became propagandists for the cause of Islam..

Mazin Younis, a leading Iraqi human rights activist working in the UK, said a lot of the new cases he had seen included allegations of sexual humiliation techniques which were part of what he said was a wider culture of abuse. He added: "This is very similar to what was happening at Abu Ghraib and was clearly employed to try to break the will of the detainees. Hundreds of soldiers must have witnessed this abuse but must either think this was acceptable behaviour or were told by their superiors to turn a blind eye."

Mr Shiner says that the new cases became known after the British withdrawal from Iraq this year. He added: "Many of these Iraqis were frightened to come forward and only now have been able to gather the courage to do so. That is no mean feat given what they have been through."

An MoD spokesperson said: "Over 120,000 British troops have served in Iraq and the vast majority have conducted themselves to the highest standards of behaviour, displaying integrity and selfless commitment. There have been instances when individuals have behaved badly but only a tiny number have been shown to have fallen short of our high standards.

"Allegations of this nature are taken very seriously but must not be taken as fact. Formal investigations must be allowed to take their course without judgements being made prematurely."

In London, the public inquiry continues to hear more evidence into the death of 26-year-old hotel receptionist Baha Mousa, who was beaten to death by British soldiers in 2003. A post-mortem revealed that he had sustained 93 different injuries.

The testimony: 'They made us pile up like at Abu Ghraib'

Nassir Ghulaim, 24, a recently married labourer, recalls what happened after his arrest in April 2007.

"I was playing football with my friends. We always stood by the main street awaiting someone to pick us up for labour work. British Jeeps approached us and stopped. Soldiers got off the Jeeps and headed to us. They had no interpreter with them. They pointed to myself and my friend [Salam] to accompany them in the Jeep. They did not force us.

We did not struggle not to go with them as we thought they are picking us for some paid work. In 2004 they did pick me to do some work in clearing a building. We were not blindfolded or handcuffed.

After a short drive we were transferred to an APC. Now they handcuffed us with plasticuffs and blindfolded us. We had no clue what the reason was for this action.

The APC drove for less than an hour and stopped in a place which we realised later was Camp Akka in Al-Zubayr. We were taken to a hall where soldiers started stripping us of our clothes. We were left in just the shorts. Then we were given some drink which started causing us dizziness and headache. It may have been a drug of some kind.

They took off our blindfolds and I could see that we were surrounded by seven or eight soldiers. There were five of us. They asked us to pick fights with one another, or fight them. They were laughing at us and taking photos with digital cameras. They made us squeeze in pile-up, as in Abu Ghraib prison photos, while a soldier stood on top of us and started shouting and laughing. I felt so humiliated and treated as a toy they messed up with.

They picked further on a younger man who was good-looking. They made him strip naked and started messing with his penis and taking photos. On one occasion I refused to pick a fight, then a soldier kicked me hard on my back, which made me fall on the floor. He started hitting me with a baton on my knees. Then he used an electric baton on different parts of my body."

'A soldier exposed herself in front of me'

Hussain Hashim Khinyab, 35, married with three children, was arrested on April 2006.

Hussain claims that he was tortured at the British camp at Shaaibah, where he says he was also sexually abused by male and female personnel.

In his statement he recalls: "Soldiers used to play porn movies during evenings and at dawn. I also noticed that every time I started praying or reading Koran they would play very loud music to distract me and probably other detainees." Mr Khinyab, a carpenter, adds: "While squatting in the toilets or in the showers, a female soldier used to expose her breast or parts of her body, or mess with another soldier in a sexual way in front of me. Another one gestured that she wanted to have sex with me. I was a practising Muslim and this behaviour was very shameful and humiliating for me. Also, a soldier in the observation tower used to point the laser spot of his gun at my penis while I was squatting in the toilet."

He alleges that when he was moved from solitary confinement to the detention halls he saw male and female soldiers engaging in sexual intercourse in front of the prisoners.

He says this was done to deliberately humiliate the inmates. Later, he claims he was sexually abused by a nurse while he was recovering in hospital.

Source: The Independant

You have your whole world view unfortunately distorted by the "muslim" persepective that you see it all through abu.
If you ever championed human rights for people abused by muslims, you would have some credibility, but you don't do that, you instead make excuses for them, and as I wrote earlier(I wonder what happened to that post??), muslims need to start to take responsibility for dealing with Islamism.
The fact that you find the concept of muslim responsibility so abhorrent that you remove any posts that even suggest it, as an appropriate way forward for Islam to progress, gives a pretty fair indication of your blinkered view of the world, and shows why people like you are a big part of the problem, when you could actually be part of the solution, if you ever had the gumption to ever use your own judgement rather than always just parroting views of imams of dubious talent, and highly questionable motivation.