Abu Ghraib Abuses - Australian Department

"We need to assure ourselves that we have learned from the mistakes of the past and we need an inquiry with full Royal Commission powers to ensure that the key information gets into the public domain about our policies in relation to the detention and treatment of prisoners of war."

The documents obtained by PIAC refer to the case of a group of 59 armed fedayeen and four Iranians captured by Australian special forces in Iraq in April 2003. To maintain a legal fiction that Australia did not take prisoners, their capture was attributed to a single US soldier attached to the Australian unit.

One of the Iranians was apparently beaten to death aboard a British helicopter while being transported to a US detention facility. Read more.