Troops’ Afghan tour records wiped

pa.press.net

Computer records from British forces’ tours of Afghanistan are wiped when they return to the UK, the Ministry of Defence has admitted.

The department said it was “not possible” to give assurances that there were no longer gaps in the storage of information created on operations overseas.

A solicitor representing more than 100 Iraqis who claim they were abused by British troops said the military’s failure to retain copies of electronic files from foreign deployments “smacked of cover-up”.

The public inquiry into the death of hotel worker Baha Mousa, 26, in the custody of UK soldiers in southern Iraq in 2003 is looking at defence officials’ record-keeping.

Inquiry staff have encountered difficulties in obtaining copies of commanders’ directives and establishing who held what post at the time.

Katherine de Bourcier, the MoD’s departmental records officer, was asked to comment on whether adequate records of military deployments are now being kept so relevant personnel and orders can be traced if investigations are launched later.

She admitted there was a “significant” risk that the deletion of data held by Army headquarters and units returning from foreign tours did not follow proper records management procedures. “It is not possible at this stage to provide assurance that there are no longer information gaps in records created on operations,” she said in a statement to the inquiry.

The Royal Navy, Army and RAF have separate guidelines for keeping records from deployments for “historical purposes”, but this amounts to only a small proportion of the information created on operations.

Phil Shiner, from Birmingham-based Public Interest Lawyers, has fought legal battles to force the MoD to disclose documents relating to alleged mistreatment of prisoners in Iraq by UK forces. In one case a British Army officer threw two laptop computers storing pictures of 20 dead Iraqis overboard from a cross-Channel ferry, the High Court heard last year. Mr Shiner said: “This is absolutely reckless. For them to wipe them all just smacks of cover-up. I cannot believe that there is some benign explanation for bringing computers home and then purging them. It’s a bit like chucking them off a cross-Channel ferry.”

The inquiry will resume on Tuesday, when it will examine how the military can ensure prisoners are properly looked after in the future.