Viraj's Weblog

From Steven Miles' Oath Betrayed:

A noteworthy contrast to the U.S. delays in informing families of torture-related deaths is the case of twenty-eight-year-old Baha Mousa. British soldiers picked him up at a hotel in Basra, Iraq. A man who was imprisoned with Mr. Mousa, and later released, described what happened in prison:

We were put in a big room with our hands tied and with bags over our heads. But I could see through some holes in my hood. Soldiers would come in - ordinary soldiers, not officers - and they would kick us, picking on one after the other. They were kick boxing us in the chest and between the legs and in the back. We were crying and screaming. They set on Baha especially and he kept crying that he couldn't breathe in the hood. He kept asking them to take the bag off and said that he was suffocating. But they laughed at him and kicked him more. One of them said, "Stop screaming and you'll be able to breathe more easily." Baha was so scared. They increased the kicking on him and he collapsed on the floor.

Three days later, Mr. Mousa's bruised body was given to his family. A British pathologist, "Professor Hill," personally told the decedent's brother that Mr. Mousa died of a beating. The British army gave the family an international death certificate listing the cause of death as "cardiorespiratory arrest: asphyxia" that has enabled the family to successfully appeal for an independent investigation.