European Parliament Urged To Investigate Iraqi Civilian Deaths

The European Parliament is being urged to launch an investigation into the deaths of Iraqi civilians allegedly involving troops from European Union member states. The call is being made in Brussels by two leading members of the Welsh nationalist Plaid Cymru party in Britain. Both said what they see as a serious "lack of transparency" on the part of the EU governments involved is undermining the bloc's human rights standards. Adam Price, a member of the British Parliament for the Welsh nationalist Plaid Cymru party, is careful to underline that what he wants to investigate at this stage remain allegations. Yet, he says reports of the deaths of as many as 250 Iraqi civilians at the hands of coalition forces in Iraq since 1 May should be of mounting concern for the European Union. At least three EU states whose troops are present in Iraq are implicated in some of the deaths -- Britain, the Netherlands, and Denmark. Price says the deaths cast a shadow over the bloc's focus on human rights and threaten its future relations with the Muslim world. He says his calls for an independent and impartial inquiry have gone largely unheeded in national capitals, so he says he is turning to the European Parliament. Price says he and Jill Evans, a Plaid Cymru deputy at the European Parliament, are particularly concerned about the killings allegedly involving EU troops.