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Dear Editor We have been in touch for some time with women raped while serving in the US military. ('I reported the rape within 30 minutes - then watched my career implode', G2, 25 Oct). In May, during the scandal of sexual torture of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib, we wrote to all women MPs asking them to press for full disclosure of what is happening to Iraqi women at the hands of US and British troops. We included a statement by ex-US Air Force Commander Dorothy Mackey who was raped by a superior officer and has been campaigning for justice for victims of military rape. She confirmed that rape and other sexual violence by the military is common and unpunished. We received no reply, except from a Scottish MSP. Even when the life of a British hostage depended on the release of Iraqi women prisoners, women MPs made no effort to enquire if the US, who first denied holding any, was telling the truth when it admitted to holding two. The Ministry of Defence denies that "our boys" are involved in sexual torture. Yet last week army training instructor Leslie Skinner was convicted of five sexual assaults against teenage recruits at Deepcut barracks, where a number of young soldiers have died in suspicious circumstances. Skinner was sent to Deepcut despite a known record for sex offences. It took 12 years to bring him to justice. If young male soldiers in Britain are not worth protecting, what can women in Iraq expect? Cristel Amiss, BLACK
WOMEN'S RAPE ACTION PROJECT bwrap@dircon.co.uk
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