A file photo of an Iraqi detainee being abused by a British soldier

GENEVA, November 26 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The UN anti-torture panel asked Britain to publish findings of investigations into reportedly cases of abuses by British forces against detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Britain should make public the result of all investigations into alleged conduct by its forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, particularly those that reveal possible actions in breach of the Convention," the UN Committee Against Torture said in a report released by Agence France Presse (AFP).

In draft conclusions on Britain’s respect for international anti-torture rules, the committee urged British government to make an "independent review of the conclusions where appropriate".

British officials told the Committee during a public hearing last week that a total of 17 cases involving allegations of torture and mistreatment by soldiers in Iraq had been investigated.

But they claimed that investigations so far indicated "no suggestion that British armed forces have been involved in systematic abuse of human rights in Iraq."

Eight cases were dropped after no crime was established while eight others are still being investigated or evaluated and one has been put for trial.

The UN panel expressed concern at Britain's view that parts of the anti-torture treaty cannot be applied to its actions in Afghanistan and Iraq, and warned that areas of those countries were under "de facto control of British authorities".

In May, Amnesty International charged that many civilian killings went uninvestigated and only a few cases were probed secretly by the Royal Military Police, calling for a civilian-led investigation into all killings.

It said in the report that British forces in Iraq have shot and killed Iraqi civilians, including an eight-year-old girl, though they faced no apparent threat.

"Killings by UK armed forces, in situations where they should not be using lethal force, are examined in secrecy and behind closed doors," said the London-based international human rights watchdog. 

“Indefinite Detention”

The UN committee urged Britain "as a matter of urgency" review "potentially indefinite detention" of foreign suspects allowed under the 2001 Anti-Terrorism Act.

It further urged reconsideration of British "indefinite detention" of international terror suspects, including criminal trials of suspects or their expulsion.

"The British government should also bolster laws to back up its undertaking to dismiss evidence that might have been extracted through torture," the committee said.

British appeal court ruled Wednesday, August 11, that British courts could use evidence extracted under torture, as long as "British agents were not complicit in the abuse", British newspapers reported Thursday, August 12.

Also US

The United States has not yet submitted its report on the conduct of its forces in Iraq so far, despite a request by the UN committee in May after revelations about the abuse of Iraqi detainees in the infamous prison of Abu Ghraib.

The abuses at Abu Ghraib caused outrage around the world when several graphic photos  of Iraqi detainees tortured and sexually abused by American soldiers at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison were made public.

The British Daily Mirror published one month later four gruesome images showing British soldiers brutally beat and urinate on an Iraqi detainees.

An Amnesty International 200-page report -- analyzing the practices and decisions that led to torture in Iraq, and reported abuse in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay  -- argues that Washington's “war mentality” led it down a slippery slope toward disregard for the rule of law.