An admission

Four years ago, Baha Mousa, an Iraqi hotel clerk, was beaten to death by British soldiers in Basra. Today, after a failed court martial which saw only one of Mousa's kilers jailed (and then for only one year after admitting a lesser charge of inhumane treatment), the British government has finally admitted responsibility. The immediate effect of this is that Mousa's relatives, who are currently suing the British government for gross violations of human rights, will gain compensation. But it can't end there. Mousa is not the only Iraqi to have been murdered in British custody, and his fellow prisoners are not the only ones who were tortured. Rather than being a one-off mistake, there has clearly been a systematic failure which has led to torture and abuse. The government needs to launch a ful enquiry into the treatment of prisoners by British forces in Iraq - not just to finally tell the truth about what happened to Baha Mousa, but also to make sure that it never happens again.