February 2nd, 2005 5:45 pm
Anger as American troops kill four inmates in jail riot
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=1269By Kim Sengupta in Basra / Independent
American troops killed four detainees and injured six others to quell a riot at a prison in British-controlled southern Iraq.
The deaths, on the day the elections were held, drew an angry response from the Iraqi interim government which called for the troops to be put on trial if they were found to have used excessive force.
The US authorities said the soldiers had used "lethal force" on the inmates corralled into compounds, surrounded by razor wire, at Camp Bucca after failing to quell rioting. They also admitted that no American soldiers had been seriously injured by stones thrown by the inmates and the disturbance had lasted just 45 minutes before the decision was taken to open fire.
Bakhtiar Amin, Iraq's human rights minister, said he had sent a delegation to the camp to investigate. "If we are convinced there was no justification for the degree of force used then we want them to be tried," he said. "If there is a mistake, then those in charge should be brought to account."
British military officers said that they were "disturbed" by the Americans resorting to live rounds so quickly, but claimed they were in no position to intervene. Camp Bucca, near Umm Qasar, holds 5,300 prisoners more than Abu Ghraib jail in Baghdad some of whom have been detained for more than a year without trial.
There have been repeated allegations of abuse at the prison, which had not attracted the publicity generated by the cases at Abu Ghraib. British soldiers have complained that on at least one occasion American soldiers shot prisoners held in cages.
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