MINISTRY OF DEFENCE AND FRIENDLY FIRE CASUALTIES

Early day motion 1634, tabled 9 September 2004 by Harry Cohen (Labour). Signed by 26 members.

That this House notes the claim by Richard D Mahoney in his book 'Getting Away with Murder' that, during the prisoner uprising at the Qala-e Janghi fortress, Afghanistan on 25th November 2001 the United States pilot called in to bomb the prisoners punched in the co-ordinates of the spotter, not the target and that many Special Forces and Northern Alliance solders were killed and wounded as a result; notes that, according to the author, nine of the Special Forces and SAS were seriously wounded, one of the British forces perhaps mortally; notes that, if this account is correct, this friendly fire incident has not previously been disclosed in this country; further notes that this seems to indicate a policy by the Ministry of Defence not to disclose friendly fire casualties of which it is aware; believes that there should be open disclosure as firstly, the relatives of victims have the right to know the facts and secondly, there is no guarantee, if they are not pressed to, that the ally responsible for the friendly fire will investigate and deal with the matter properly either by punishing individuals responsible or learning important lessons to avoid a similar event; and calls upon the Ministry of Defence to disclose all it knows about friendly fire incidents in Afghanistan and Iraq, what it did about each one, what response it received from the ally responsible in each case, and what its policy is about publicly disclosing the facts of friendly fire cases.

Signatures by party: Labour 17, Liberal Democrat 4, Labour/Co-operative 2, Plaid Cymru 2, UUP 1.