Danish military torturers on trial - Press machine well rehearsed

The trial has commenced in Denmark of Captain Annemette Hommel. A Danish army intelligence officer who with four military police sergeants have been charged with mistreating Iraqi prisoners in southern Iraq in early 2004.

Captain Annemette Hommel was charged with four counts of negligence while on duty in March, April and June 2004.

All five are accused of verbal abuse of detainees, denying them food and water, and forcing them to kneel in discomfort during interrogation.

The court has learnt that Military press officers at Denmark's Camp Eden in Iraq were aware torture charges could be brought against former Captain Annemette Hommel. They prepared themselves for an entire month to prepare for any charges, according to testimony in a Copenhagen court on Monday, according to national broadcaster DR.

One of the army press officers said 4 weeks before charges were officially laid, preparation of press statements in response to the charges had commenced .

Though the press officers were busy preparing their defence, military leadership in the Army Operative Command remained unaware of any possible charges until the Judge Advocate began to investigate the matter.

The press officer said preparations included such things as responding to tabloid headlines such as 'Torture daily duty for Danish Iraq troops'. They were also ready for newspaper allegations that 'detainees were left in stressful positions for hours, that they were denied water, and that they were talked down to'.

As it happens, those are precisely the charges against Hommel and four MP sergeants. Much depends upon claims that forcing Iraqi detainees to be questioned by a female interrogator was the equivalent of cultural torture, said witnesses in the trial..

Testifying on Monday, Jesper Helsø, commanding general of Denmark's military forces, expressed concern about how the case would affect the military's reputation.

'Regardless of how this turns out, it's soiled the reputation of the military,'

he said...... he didn't mention what it did to the detainees.


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