The conviction of the US soldier seen as the ringleader in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal should be a first step towards broader accountability in the detainee abuse scandal, say human rights activists. 

More trials and hearings on Wednesday, however, pointed at a more system-wide problem that has spread across several arms of the coalition forces.

Both British and US soldiers are facing dozens of charges in incidents ranging from demeaning acts to shooting unarmed and handcuffed prisoners.

Charles Graner, 36, a former specialist demoted to private, will serve a 10-year jail sentence after a military court found him guilty on January 16 of beating and sexually humiliating prisoners at Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison.

Yesterday, the court martial of three British soldiers accused of ill-treating civilians in Iraq continued with a legal expert explaining how he informed troops there about prisoners' rights.

Lieutenant Colonel Nicholas Mercer, has been called to help establish that these three soldiers were aware their conduct was wrong.

The three Royal Fusiliers, Corporal Daniel Kenyon and Lance Corporals Darren Larkin and Mark Cooley, face a total of nine charges ranging from assault, to forcing detainees to simulate sexual acts, and to prejudicing good military order.

'Breadbasket' scandal

The alleged acts took place on or around May 15, 2003 at a sprawling depot known as the "breadbasket" near Basra, southern Iraq, which was being used as a storage point for humanitarian aid but was regularly targeted by looters.

Some 22 pictures make up the main evidence in the trial of the three.

One came from a film shot by Corporal Mark Cooley, others from unnamed soldiers, and the rest were from the camera of Corporal Gary Bartlam, who has already been convicted.

Many of the pictures show the group of Iraqi looters captured during what was named Operation Ali Baba at Camp Breadbasket.

Two of the pictures show two naked Iraqis, one of whom has been forced to kneel on the ground, while the other is "simulating" oral sex.

Prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel Nick Clapham said: "One Iraqi is kneeling down into the groin area of the standing Iraqi and he has his face in the groin area of the naked Iraqi as a simulation."

Another shows two naked Iraqis, their faces clearly visible as they turn to the camera with their thumbs up. One is directly behind the rear area of the other in what was described to the court as "simulated" anal sex.

Another group of photographs show an Iraqi man who has been tied up in a thick cargo net made from blue rope. The prisoner is seen suspended from a forklift truck.

"This Iraqi is tied in a cargo net. He also has his hands tied. He is suspended from the raised forks of the forklift truck," Clapham explained.

"It is cruel to place a restrained person in such a position because of the fear and trepidation that you might expect him to feel from the risks involved and his capability to predict for himself that he may come into pain through falling," said the prosecutor, adding that the picture clearly showed the detainee grimacing, his eyes closed.

The court heard that Corporal Daniel Kenyon could be seen in one picture wearing a brown T-shirt.

Among the three soldiers who face charges in connection to the abuse, Lance Corporal Mark Cooley, 25, from Newcastle, northeast England, is the youngest.

He has been charged with two offences involving conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline.

He is alleged to have simulated punching an unknown male who was being held by British forces. He is also accused of twice having his photograph taken while simulating such abuse.

He faces a further charge of disgraceful conduct of a cruel kind after allegedly placing "an unknown male, who was being detained by British forces and whose hands were tied, on the forks of a forklift truck, raised the forks and drove the forklift truck."

He denies all the charges.

The court heard, however, that he admitted simulating the punch and moving the man with a forklift truck to get him "out of the sun."

Lance Corporal Darren Larkin, 30, from Oldham in the English midlands, has pleaded guilty to a civil charge of battery, admitting that he assaulted an unknown Iraqi man by beating him.

His barrister, William England, told the court that his client had always accepted his part in that offence.

"He is ashamed of his unacceptable and mindless act. He knows he has brought shame on his proud regiment, himself and his family," he said.

Larkin is also accused of disgraceful conduct of an indecent kind and is said to have forced two unknown males to undress in front of others.

He denies this charge.

Corporal Daniel Kenyon, 33, is the most senior in rank with 15 years' service.

He faces six charges including aiding and abetting Larkin in the battery of the unknown Iraqi. The second is that he failed to report the incident involving the Iraqi suspended in the forklift truck to his superior officers.

He is also accused of helping Larkin force two men to strip naked. He is further charged with disgraceful conduct of an indecent kind and is said to have "aided and abetted a person or persons unknown to force two unknown naked males who were being detained by British forces to simulate a sexual act."

He faces a separate charge that on another occasion he aided and abetted the forcing of two men to simulate a sexual act. He is also accused of failing to report that soldiers under his command had forced two unknown naked males to simulate an act of oral sex.

He denies all the charges.

Abuse condemned

The trial has put prisoner abuse on the spotlight in Britain.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said yesterday the British military would not tolerate any abuse of Iraqi prisoners, and insisted that the majority of troops there behaved honorably.

"Everyone finds those photographs shocking and appalling and there are simply no other words to describe them," said Blair.

"The vast majority of those 65,000 British soldiers who have served in Iraq have done so with distinction, with courage and with great honor to this country. Whilst we express, in a unified way I know, our disgust at those pictures, I hope we do not allow that to tarnish the good name fully deserved of our British armed forces."

The head of the country's armed forces, General Michael Jackson, on Tuesday condemned abuse by soldiers.

"We condemn utterly all acts of abuse," Jackson said in a statement issued by the Ministry of Defense in London.

"Where there is evidence of abuse this is investigated immediately."

Those are issues that are becoming widespread and are not specific to the British armed forces.

Activists' voice

But every day there seems to be "new evidence that the mistreatment of Muslim prisoners far from being an isolated incident at Abu Ghraib was widespread in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba," wrote Reed Brody, special counsel with Human Rights Watch.

Detainees in Afghanistan "were frequently beaten, held naked and deprived of sleep for long periods," while inmates at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay "have been regularly shackled into painful positions in freezing rooms."

After the Abu Ghraib abuse photos were published in April 2004 the Pentagon ordered nine separate investigations, said Reed.

"Two probes showed that Rumsfeld's interrogation policies contributed to torture and abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the investigators lacked the mandate or the independence to draw the obvious conclusions regarding the political or legal responsibility of Rumsfeld or others who approved illegal tactics."

The result: "No soldier higher than the rank of sergeant has been charged with a crime. No civilian leader at the Pentagon or the CIA is even being investigated," he wrote.

Spotlight case in US

In one incident currently in the spotlight, a US soldier is accused of shooting a wounded and handcuffed Iraqi man.

He faced a hearing on Tuesday to determine whether a court martial is appropriate.

Sergeant Timothy Knutson of the 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, faces charges of attempting to murder an unknown man and making a false statement.

Knutson allegedly shot the man on November 11 during a mission to round up insurgents in the Palestine neighborhood in Mosul.

The hearing on Tuesday is known as an Article 32 and its purpose is to determine whether further action is needed.

(China Daily January 20, 2005)