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Proceeding contribution from Lord Lee of Trafford (Liberal Democrat) in the House of Lords on Thursday, 8 September 2011. It occurred during Ministerial statement on Baha Mousa Inquiry.


Baha Mousa Inquiry

My Lords, first, I join these Benches in the earlier tribute. I, too, thank my noble friend the Minister for repeating the Statement and for the offer of the briefing on 18 October. We have only had a few hours to study the 1,400 pages or so of this report. Clearly, in that time, one has only been able to skim through certain sections of it. It makes sickening reading. The horrifying thing is that, had Mr Baha Mousa not died, there would not have been an inquiry, a report or this Statement. Neither would there have been the 73 recommendations which, we hope, will prevent a ghastly act like this happening again. I ask two specific questions. First, there has been a certain amount about Afghanistan in the press. What is the position in relation to our forces handing over detainees to the Afghan authorities and do we have any ability to monitor what happens to them when they are in Afghan hands? Secondly, would it be possible for the Ministry to investigate, possibly using closed-circuit television in some of our detention centres overseas or in our overseas prisons to give us an ability to monitor the behaviour of our troops and the treatment of detainees? If we had CCTV in this particular situation, perhaps this ghastly incident would not have happened.


Secondary information

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
730 c466 
Session
2010-12
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
Subjects
Abuse Detainees Death Army Iraq Prosecutions Peacekeeping operations Training Baha Mousa Inquiry Iraq Historic Allegations Team Queen's Lancashire Regiment Mousa, Baha
Link
View this Proceeding contribution on www.publications.parliament.uk