ChristopherWhite.info

Before Gordon Brown bangs on anymore about Britishness, perhaps he should read Michael Bywater on Englishness.

This from way back in 2000:

When we wish to pride ourselves that we are still the world’s peacekeeper (”Shape up, you chaps; you won’t always have the White Man to lean on”), we march off to the Balkans, upper lips stiff as a woodsman’s tool. But when those self-same people whom we so eagerly went off to defend want to come here in the hope of surviving a little longer, the upper lips reform into a purse. Suddenly, the Balkans are light-years away, its people three-headed, with green blood and no morals.

Déjà-vu all over again.

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I’ve had emails from three people who claim to be - and who almost certainly are- Iraqi former employees of the British Government. All three say that they and their former colleagues are still at risk of death for their ‘collaboration’.

We’ll call the first man Employee One. He worked for the British for three years: ‘I started in the beginning of the war with Commandos (in 30 of March 2003) then continued with 23 Pioneer Regt, and in 08 / 07 / 2003 I have joined the Labour Support Unit (LSU)’. His British friends knew him as Chris.

The British Government has announced that he can apply for help if he can transport himself to the British base outside Basra, or to the Embassies in Syria or Jordan. It doesn’t seem to occur to anyone that there might be problems with this.

I can email and telephone this man: so can any Foreign Office official. It should not be impossible to verify his story and then send him the funds he needs to get to a less unsafe Arab country. But that is not happening.

Here’s an email exchange we had the other day. My questions are in italics.

1) Are you still in Iraq? ‘Yes, I’m still hidden in somewhere in the hell of Basra.’

2) Is there any reason you cannot travel to the British Army base at Basra Airbase to ask for asylum? ‘Of course, we cannot travel to BIA (Basra International Airbase) due to the militia keep watched all the ways to BIA and they got their own fake check points there although, we claimed for asylum through the internet (we sent our application to the claim office at BIA) . But we afraid that the British are going to take a long time to process our claims also we are very worried if they will offer just some money instead of asylum, please sir inform all the British people that we looking for asylum and just the asylum will save our lives, also we can’t travel to Syria anymore to claim for asylum there as the Syrian government issued new conditions for Iraqis who want to travel to their country.’

3) Can you tell me how and when the militias threatened you?‘In 2006 I have threatened by militia that hated me because I work and help coalition forces in Iraq, I told my bosses about that but they said we can’t do anything for you because we have nothing to do with civilian and we don’t have any army rules or orders to help you, then I continued my daily work with British army, few days later the militia attacked my house trying to catch me but I was at the work at that time, they beaten my family and told them: we want your son or we will kill all of you!!!! ‘Since that day I decided to leave my job and change my home place but until this moment the militia trying to find and kill me, I’m always changing my place trying to hidden from them, they know that I left my job but they don’t care, they just want to kill me they called me collaborator and traitor and they asked everybody know me about my place, they told them: anyone know anything about (name) he should tell us immediately and also they said: we will never give up until we catch (name). They work for ministry of interior so they controlled most of government departments and they work under that cover.’

4) Do you have any family members who are also threatened by militias or who depend on you? If so, how many of them are there and how old are they? ’Of course, my family depends on me especially in the finance side as I’m the older son between seven sons and daughters they got, on other hand my parents cannot working as they are very old.’

Read the rest.

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Foreign and Commonwealth Office Press Release:

Written Ministerial Statement

09 October 2007

IRAQ: ASSISTANCE TO LOCALLY EMPLOYED STAFF

The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr. David Miliband):

On 8 August the Prime Minister announced a review of the Government’s assistance to our Locally Engaged staff in Iraq. The Defence Secretary, Home Secretary, Secretary of State for International Development, Chief Secretary to the Treasury and I have now agreed on the elements of a scheme.

Locally engaged Iraqi staff working for our armed forces and civilian missions in Iraq have made an invaluable contribution, in uniquely difficult circumstances, to the UK’s efforts to support security, stability and development in the new Iraq. We are hugely grateful to them for their contribution, which continues to be essential to the delivery of our mission in Iraq.

In recognition of that, we have decided to offer those staff, on an ex gratia basis, assistance which goes above and beyond the confines of what is lawfully or contractually required. Assistance will be based on objective criteria, taking into account determinable and relevant factors. It is offered in recognition of the service by these courageous Iraqis in direct support of HMG’s efforts to help the Iraqi Government and people build a peaceful, stable and prosperous Iraq.

The assistance announced by the Prime Minister yesterday will allow Iraqi staff, including but not limited to interpreters, currently working¹ for HMG in Iraq, who have attained 12 months’ or more continuous service, to apply for a one-off package of financial assistance of between 6 and 12 months’ salary, depending on length of service, to meet the costs of relocation for themselves and their dependants in Iraq or the region, if they are made redundant or have to resign from their job because of what we judge to be exceptional circumstances. Alternatively, these staff will be able to apply for exceptional leave to enter the UK, or to avail themselves of the opportunity for resettlement in the UK through the UK’s Gateway refugee resettlement programme, provided that they meet the criteria for the programme, including that they satisfy UNHCR that they meet the criteria of the 1951 Convention and need resettlement.

In addition, interpreters/translators and other Iraqi staff serving in similarly skilled or professional roles necessitating the regular use of written or spoken English, who formerly worked for HMG in Iraq, will be able to apply for assistance for themselves and their dependants provided that they satisfactorily completed a minimum of 12 months’ service, and they were in our employ on or after 1 January 2005. Former staff meeting those criteria will be able to apply for a one-off package of financial assistance similar to that available for serving staff, or to avail themselves of the opportunity for resettlement in the UK through the Gateway programme as set out above.

This assistance will principally apply to Iraqi nationals who meet the eligibility criteria set out above, and who work, or have worked, in Iraq in the following capacities:

• as direct employees of the UK Armed Forces or the Ministry of Defence;
• on Letters of Appointment from the British Embassy in Baghdad or the British Embassy Offices in Basra and the Kurdistan Region;
• as direct employees of DFID and the British Council.

In addition, we are considering what assistance may be provided to a limited number of contracted staff meeting the eligibility criteria who have worked in particularly close association with us as an integral part of HMG programmes, projects and operations in Iraq.

We will announce further details, including on how eligible staff may apply, before the end of the month.

[1] defined as those working for our civilian missions or armed forces on or after 8 August 2007, the date on which the review of policy was announced.

Twelve months’ continuous service? So if they’ve only been working for British forces for a week or so and get murdered as “collaborators” that okay then is it?

Er…

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*

Mr Speaker, I would also like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the work of our civilian and locally employed staff in Iraq, many of whom have worked in extremely difficult circumstances exposing themselves and their families to danger.

And I am pleased therefore to announce today a new policy which more fully recognises the contribution made by our local Iraqi staff who work for our armed forces and civilian missions in uniquely difficult circumstances.

Existing staff who have been employed by us for more than twelve months and have completed their work will be able to apply for a package of financial payments to aid resettlement in Iraq or elsewhere in the region, or - in agreed circumstances - for admission to the UK. And professional staff — including interpreters and translators — with a similar length of service who have left our employ since the beginning of 2005 will also be able to apply for assistance.

We will make a further written statement on the detail of this scheme this week.

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Dan Hardie:

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The film Se7en ends with Morgan Freeman saying: “Ernest Hemingway wrote that the world is a fine place, and worth fighting for. I agree with the second part.”

Despite my day-to-day cynicism — or perhaps because of it — so do I.

Dan Hardie has organised a meeting in Parliament for the evening of October 9th, in an effort to convince the Government to make special asylum arrangements for Iraqi civilians under threat for having worked with British forces. Among the speakers will be Mark Brockway, an ex-soldier who employed many Iraqis as translators and is in contact with many who are in fear of their lives — and knows at least one who has been murdered. The appearance that both of them made on Radio Five Live is available at the Ministry of Truth. I’m listening to it now: it’s quite grim.

I’ll be going next tuesday. Allowing the current situation to continue, with Iraqis having holes drilled in their heads and young girls dragged out of their car and murdered for the heinous crime of doing British squaddies’ laundry is fucking unacceptable.

The more MPs at the meeting the better. Invite yours please.

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From my MP, Helen Goodman:

Thank you for your recent e-mail concerning the asylum status of Iraqi citizens who have worked for the British Army in Southern Iraq.

I acknowledge the importance of the issue and have therefore forwarded your letter to Liam Byrne MP, Minister of State for Borders and Immigration at the Home Office.

I have asked Mr Byrne to investigate the issues you raise and to respond in due course. I will, of course, write to you again when I receive a reply.

When people are getting shot for doing laundry, they’d both better hurry themselves up…

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I’ve been trying my utmost not to swear on this blog — at least not regularly. But it’s taking every iota of restraint not to resort to likening Neil Clark to a moist part of the female anatomy.

This vicious piece he’s written for Comment Is Free can be summed up as: “We should let Iraqis who have worked with the British Army be killed when we leave, because they deserve it.”

Scumbag.

CIF perhaps unsurprisingly turned off comments on that post after three hours rather than the usual three days, but it was still enough time for some great responses, like this from Daniel Davies:

Every bone in my body wants to bluntly invite Neil to consider the implications of his implied policy - that the most violent and nationalistic element of society should be given free reign to dish out rough justice to people they regard as traitors - for the long term survival of his own political party. But I think that would probably be crossing a line in terms of the talk policy so I’ll just note that there is an inconsistency here.

Let’s be clear here, expanding on Conor’s point above. There is a clear duty of any occupying power to ensure security for the population under occupation. It’s in the Geneva Convention. To intentionally abandon people who you expect to be killed by deaths squads is by that token a war crime. That’s why the official policy of the UK government is not to commit this war crime but to instead offer silly and insufficiently generous asylum slots. That’s bad enough.

Neil Clark, on the other hand, is actually saying that the war crime is the correct thing to do. That’s crazy. How can it possibly be part of any sensible anti-war position to say that an occupying force has no obligation to stop people being murdered? And why would anyone, even if they did regard the Iraqi insurgency as “true heroes”, think that this true heroism was best expressed by murdering whole families? Translators, cooks and mechanics simply aren’t “quislings” and no sane resistance movement has ever acted as if they were.

And this from the ever-wise Conor Foley:

Since Clark rests part of his incitement to murder on international law (and clearly the terms in which he has described these civilian staff as ‘legitimate targets’ does constitute such an incitment), it is worth explaining one point here.

There is an overwelming consensus that the invasion of Iraq was illegal. However, the notion that people ‘collaborating with the occupation’ are war criminals is rubbish. On the contrary, the statute of the International Criminal Court, which is largely based on the Geneva Conventions, specifically states that what Clark is advocating is a war crime. You can find the link here:
http://www.icc-cpi.int/about.html

It is worth reading Article 8 on war crimes. Amongst the crimes that it lists are:

‘Intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population as such or against individual civilians not taking direct part in hostilities’.

The second half of that sentence was specifically written to protect those whom Clark calls ‘collaborators’. He goes on to argue against a basic principle of human rights law (enshrined in the UN Convention against Torture, the Refugee Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights) that people fleeing persecution should be denied sanctuary in Britain, so we can assume that his commitment to international law is fairly selective.

What is more interesting is whether or not this article, through its clear incitment to people to commit war crimes (his repeated refusal to distinguish between military combatants and civilians), would actually make Clark himself liable to criminal prosecution. The Rwanda radio case springs to mind and war crimes have universal jurisdiction. I think that the police and attorney general might want to have a word here.

I hope that you have a sleepless night Clark. This article brought back some very painful memories for me.

( And I really hope — though doubt — that the “SimonJ” who had a comment deleted by the moderators is the Guardian’s own Mr Jenkins.)

Yet it’s heartening, particularly given my previous post, that the best part of 200 commenters all agree that Clark is a complete twat. Damn. Knew I wouldn’t be able to keep that up.

Dan Hardie has the lastest update on MPs’ responses here, and there is a rather clever video by Tim Ireland here.

UPDATE 12/8/07

To clarify, I do not myself think Neil Clark should go to prison. I do however think he’s a world-class turd.

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Dan Hardie picked up and brought to many people’s attention the plight of Iraqi interpreters working with the British Army who we apparently leaving to be killed once Her Maj’s forces withdraw, and started the “We Can’t Turn Them Away” campaign. (See also: the report in the Times here; Justin of Chicken Yoghurt’s collation of MPs’ responses to pissed-off constituents here. I’ll post my MP’s reply on here once the Rt Hon Helen Goodman gets back to me.)

But we live, lamentably, in a country largely characterised by its conservatism and pride in ignorance of politics. Luckily, however, this is sometimes piss funny.

The stupidest possible remark on the Iraqi interpreters’ situation has been plucked from the BBC’s “Have You Say” by the absolutely delightful blog spEak You’re bRanes (disciples of Chris Morris, one suspects):

Interpreters ?
No they should not be given asylum! If you want to live here you should have the decency to learn our language!
We should have no need for interpreters, or at least not a lot of interpreters.

Joe Turner, London, United Kingdom

Eh?

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