THE mothers of two young soldiers killed in Iraq have lost their legal attempt to force the government to hold a public inquiry into Britain's involvement in the conflict.
A committee of nine Law Lords yesterday dismissed an appeal by Rose Gentle and Beverley Clarke, whose lawyers argued that the government of Tony Blair breached its duty to the men and women of the armed forces by failing to ensure in advance that t
he invasion was lawful and justified.
At a hearing in the House of Lords in February, Rabinder Singh, QC, said: "That duty is owed to soldiers. They have to put their lives in harm's way if necessary, because their country demands it."
Mrs Gentle, from Glasgow, said her legal fight was "now over", but insisted it was still "up to the government" to explain its actions. She added: "I wanted to know why my son was killed. I wanted to know why my son was sent into Iraq. The legal fight is over, but there's a lot that can be done.
"My message to Tony Blair is: why didn't he answer our questions so the families wouldn't have had to have done this?"
The case was brought against Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, and Baroness Scotland, the Attorney General. The mothers challenged a Court of Appeal ruling in December 2006 that the government was not under an implied obligation to order an independent inquiry under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects the "right to life". They said that the government's promise of an inquiry "when the time is right" was not good enough.
Fusilier Gordon Gentle, of the Royal Highland Fusiliers, died in June 2004 in a roadside bomb attack on British vehicles in Basra in southern Iraq.
Trooper David Clarke, from Littleworth, Staffordshire, was one of two soldiers who died in March 2003 in a "friendly-fire" incident west of Basra.
At the centre of the argument over whether the decision to invade was lawful was the families' demand for an explanation as to how 13 pages of "equivocal" advice from the then attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, on 7 March, 2003, were reduced within ten days to one page of unequivocal advice that an invasion would be legal.
Last night, Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, called the ruling "extremely disappointing for the families".
He added: "It is adding insult to injury after Gordon Brown promised to hold an inquiry, but not yet. Natural justice demands a full public inquiry is held without further delay."
The full article contains 436 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
