The Report of the Iraq Inquiry

he was satisfied there had been no abuse. The Regional Director had concluded that no

further action was necessary.

829. Mr Collis was considering how to ensure that a proper investigation was carried

out. He had referred the matter to the ICRC and waited to hear whether they would

investigate. Plans were in place on how to press the issue if the ICRC were denied

access.

830. On 26 October, Baroness Symons, Minister of State for the Middle East,

International Security, Consular and Personal Affairs at the Foreign Office, wrote to

Mr Straw about a meeting she had held with Mr Bakhtiar Amin, the Iraqi Minister of

Human Rights, the previous evening.788 Mr Amin had expressed concerns over the

current conditions in Iraqi prisons and said that he would be “most interested” in help on

rehabilitation programmes and prison monitoring.

831. On 6 February 2005, a telegram from Baghdad sought an indication of whether

further funding would be available to develop the prison inspectors’ training programme

in Basra.789 Reporting on a meeting between Mr Andrew Hood, Legal Adviser, and

Mr Amin, it stated that Mr Amin was positive about the training prison inspectors had

received and that he would like all this to be available to all inspectors. Speaking to

Mr Hood, Mr Amin requested further assistance: “he had sufficient funds to employ more

prison inspectors if there was sufficient capacity to train them”.

832. A bid for additional funding to extend the prisons programme was submitted

on 17 August.790 The bid mentioned co‑ordinating MND(SE) activity with the US

programmes elsewhere in Iraq, but did not specify supporting the extension of the Basra

training programme outside southern Iraq.

833. At the AHMGI on 28 October, Mr Paul Boateng, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury

informed Mr Blair that, of the US$107m worth of equipment requested by the MOD to

speed up Iraqiisation in MND(SE), US$29m would be funded by the US, the remaining

US$78m/£40.6m could be funded by the Treasury from the Reserve on a “one‑off”

basis.791 That was in addition to the US$4.5m/£2.5m GCPP‑funded ISF equipment

purchase agreed in September.

834. On 24 November, a junior official in the MOD submitted a draft departmental

minute to Mr Hoon to be laid before Parliament for the first tranche of ISF equipment

788 Minute Symons to Straw, 26 October 2004, ‘Iraq: Human Rights Assistance’.

789 Telegram 90 Baghdad to FCO, 6 February 2005, ‘Iraq: Call on Minister of Human Rights’.

790 Email FCO [junior official] to FCO [junior official], 17 August 2005, ‘FW: GCPP Prisons Bid’ attaching

Project Bid Form, 9 August 2005, ‘Prison Service Support in Southern Iraq’.

791 Minutes, 28 October 2004, Ad Hoc Ministerial Group on Iraq meeting.

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