[BITList] Major quits Army and sends medals back to Queen in protest at eight inquiries into Iraqi death

[John Feltham]

From a correspondent…



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/02/23/major-quits-army-sends-medals-back-queen-protest-eight-inquiries/ <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/02/23/major-quits-army-sends-medals-back-queen-protest-eight-inquiries/>
 



Major Robert Campbell

Robert Mendick <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/robert-mendick/>, chief reporter 

23 FEBRUARY 2018 • 9:30PM


 A decorated major facing his eighth investigation over the death of an Iraqi teenager 15 years ago has given his medals back and quit the Army in protest.

Major Robert Campbell,  <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/02/22/broken-says-decorated-british-army-major-told-must-face-eighth/>who was wounded in the line of duty, became so disillusioned he returned his medals to the Queen, it has emerged.

Buckingham Palace confirmed it sent the major a letter in response, which he described as “very touching”.

 
Major Campbell, who serves in the Royal Engineers, said his decision to resign was a consequence of his career having been “poisoned” by a series of inquiries into the death of the Iraqi in 2003. Ministers are now under growing pressure to shut down the Iraq Fatality Investigations (IFI) inquiry, which is investigating Major Campbell and other Iraq war <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/28/chilcot-inquiry-when-is-the-report-being-published-and-why-has-i/>veterans.

In a posting on Facebook, Major Campbell wrote: “I leave the Army in six weeks’ time, after yet another stay in Headley Court [the rehabilitation unit], with only a pair of hearing aids and a disabled badge for my car.”



Major Robert Campbell's good conduct medal


He added: “Last year, at a particular low point, I returned my medals to Her Majesty… I received a very touching, but private letter from the Palace, followed a few weeks later by a letter from the Army Secretariat stating I can have them back if I have a change of heart.”

The Daily Telegraph disclosed how Major Campbell had been “broken” by the “sordid process” of successive investigations into the death of Said Shabram, a 19-year-old who drowned in Basra in May 2003.

The major, who has been cleared on several occasions of manslaughter and denies any wrongdoing, now faces an eighth inquiry by IFI, which was set up in the wake of a series of court victories by the human rights lawyer Phil Shiner, <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/02/02/calls-human-rights-lawyer-phil-shiner-pursued-decade-long-witch/> who has since been struck off for dishonesty.



Major Robert Campbell


Two weeks earlier, Major Campbell received a Long Service and Good Conduct medal, which he also plans to return. Major Campbell said: “Without any sense of irony, the same British Army that has steadfastly done nothing to make any tangible difference to these continuous allegations, decided to award me my Long Service and Good Conduct medal, for ‘15 years irreproachable service’.

“The likelihood is though that I will be returning this one too.”

A series of senior MPs and former military chiefs called on the Ministry of Defence, which funds IFI, to shut it down.

Gavin Williamson, the Defence Secretary, declined to comment on whether it was right or wrong for Major Campbell and two comrades to be dragged through another inquiry. He previously said he accepted that soldiers should not be subjected to a “constant treadmill” of investigations.

Downing Street said the Government had “a legal obligation” to continue with the IFI inquiry.



Johnny Mercer MP


But Johnny Mercer, the Conservative MP and former Army captain who has raised the major’s plight in Parliament, said: “IFI must end. It is a charade driven by cowards without the will or courage to do the right thing.”

Tom Tugendhat, the Conservative MP, chairman of the Foreign Affairs committee and a former Army officer, branded the latest inquiry “a disgrace”, adding: “Having courageously faced the enemy he’s now being attacked by bureaucratic cowardice of those who won’t stand up to a legal assault, some of whom have already been proved to be dishonest. Our government must stop this now.”



Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson


Major General Julian Thompson, who led a commando brigade in the Falklands war, said: “It is absolutely astonishing. He has been investigated a number of times and has been cleared. Someone in government at the very top should stop it.”

Lord West of Spithead, the former First Sea Lord, said: “We treat the men and women who have been fighting to protect us more harshly than the people who are trying to kill us.”

An MoD spokesman said: “IFI is not investigating soldiers, it investigates incidents in order to uncover facts, learn lessons and comply with our legal obligations. The MoD ensures that no service personnel are unnecessarily inconvenienced by the IFI process.”






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