Posted on 05/21/2003 5:48:07 AM PDT by Ace Correspondent
British officer faces war crimes investigation
A senior British army officer is being formally investigated over alleged war crimes in Iraq, the Ministry of Defence said today.
Unnamed defence sources quoted by news agencies named the officer under investigation as Lt Col Tim Collins. He made headlines on the eve of the war with a stirring speech to his troops in which he reminded soldiers to have respect for the Iraqi people.
The army's special investigations branch is probing allegations that Lt Col Collins' treatment of prisoners of war and an Iraqi civic leader may have broken the Geneva Convention, the sources said.
The Sun newspaper, which reported the allegations, said Lt Col Collins denied any wrongdoing.
The Ministry of Defence confirmed the investigation into an officer serving in Iraq but declined to comment further.
Lt Col Collins, 43, who was often seen with a cigar clenched between his teeth and wearing a pair of sunglasses, was the commanding officer of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment. His regiment helped secure the oil town of Al Rumalah in the south of Iraq during the war.
Col Bob Stewart, the former commander of British forces in Bosnia, said an investigation was appropriate to keep the army beyond reproach, but said there were situations in war that could be interpreted in different ways.
Col Stewart described slapping a hysterical woman during the conflict in Northern Ireland.
"I hated myself for doing it but it was the only way that I could get her under control. I do not think it was a war crime. I did it deliberately and I did it to get the situation under control," he said.
"I can readily see situations where people do things that can be cut any way you like."
Lt Col Collins was widely praised for a rousing speech to his troops in Kuwait before the first push into Iraq. He urged them to do their duty while treating the enemy with respect.
"Wipe them out if that is what they choose. But if you are ferocious in battle remember to be magnanimous in victory," he said.
"If you harm the regiment or its history by over-enthusiasm in killing or in cowardice, know it is your family who will suffer. You will be shunned unless your conduct is of the highest, for your deeds will follow you down through history."
Prince Charles was so impressed by the speech that he wrote a personal note to Lt Col Collins to say how "profoundly moved" he was by the "extraordinarily stirring, civilised and humane" words.
The US president, George Bush, was reported to have had a copy of the speech pinned to the wall of his office in the White House.
I would be surprised if he actually did anything so far out of line to warrant this. My guess is that there is some witch hunting going on. But one never knows, let's hope the LtC gets a fair and thorough investigation and hearing if that's what it comes to.
It was a great speech. So was the U.S. Marine General's.
Colonel fulfilled his father's dream
BY DAVID BROWN
COLONEL TIM COLLINS, the British officer being investigated for alleged war crimes, fulfilled his late father’s dream by leading his men in battle for Queen and country.
The ambition of his father, Thomas, to serve in the military was thwarted by a partial deafness brought on by a childhood accident, Mary, his mother, saud.
Men of the Collins family have served in Irish regiments since the 1857 Indian Mutiny, Mrs Collins, aged 72, said at the family home in Belfast. The Royal Irish Regiment was formed in July 1992, after the merger of the Ulster Defence Regiment and the Royal Irish Rangers.
Colonel Collins’s Shakespearean-style battle speech delivered to men gathered around a Challenger tank as they prepared to attack Iraq was reported all around the world. “That speech was just Tim. It is the way he is and always has been. He was brought up to be a very honest person. He has a real conscience and people acknowledge and respect those qualities,” Mrs Collins said.
On leaving the Royal Belfast Academical Institution in 1978, a school where he was known simply as “TC” and was regarded as “impish and lively”, Colonel Collins took a history degree before moving to the military academy at Sandhurst, where he picked up several shooting awards. The school cadet corps also saw him build strong links with the Royal Irish, which he has served to this day. Colonel Collins, 42, is married to Caroline, and the couple have four sons at a daughter.
After Sandhurst, he was commissioned into the Royal Signals for a year before joining the Royal Irish Rangers, serving in Cyprus, Berlin and Northern Ireland. During the Iraq war he was commanding officer of the 600-strong Royal Irish Regiment with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, but recently he has been promoted to full Colonel.
His talent for enduring the Army’s toughest physical courses was combined with a strong intellectual ability in military matters. By 1994 he had graduated with an MA after attending Staff College in Camberley and the Royal Military College of Science at Shrivenham, Oxfordshire. The Royal Irish Regiment, the largest infantry regiment in the Army, fought battles across southern Iraq. Colonel Collins later oversaw peace- keeping in the Iran-Iraq border town of al-Amara.
Earlier this month Colonel Collins said: “I look at Iraq and it’s a bit like living in a street where there's a nice house. But every night you can see a father going home drunk and hearing his wife and children crying. Finally some neighbours have taken it upon themselves to kick the door in and hand him over to the police. And this is what’s happened here.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,5944-687543,00.html
We want rough, aggressive men to do our fighting for us & are surprised when they behave roughly & aggressively.
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