Red cap families "bewildered" by lack of arrests

Feb 19 2007 By Journal reporter

A British operation to arrest eight people suspected of killing a group of Red Caps in Iraq, including two from Tyne and Wear, was considered by the Government, it has been reported.

Foreign Office documents show the plan for unilateral action was later rejected for fear of stoking up controversy.

Cpl Paul Long, 24, and Cpl Simon Miller, 21, were among six military policemen killed by an Iraqi mob in Majar al-Kabir. The Red Caps were set on by an estimated 400 Iraqis in a police station in June 2003.

Last February, a court in Baghdad issued arrest warrants for eight suspects. A year on, nobody has been detained despite pressure from the UK Government.

Families of the dead soldiers claim that when they asked for unilateral action, they were told Iraq security forces are required to take the lead, the report said.

The families say they are due to meet Defence Secretary Des Browne in a fortnight and will raise the issue again.

A Ministry of Defence inquiry into the deaths found they could not have been prevented. In March 2006, a coroner recorded a narrative verdict of unlawful killing.

John Miller, father of Cpl Miller, said his family were "bewildered" by the failure to arrest anyone for his son’s murder.

He said: "For all this time the MoD have told us that they can’t arrest those people but now the Foreign Office says that it has been considered and rejected. It just makes me suspect that there is something behind it all that we still don’t know."