The Foreign Office’s censorship chief has told a court it was “very complicated, a little bit mysterious and regrettable” that a cache of documents was concealed from this journalist long after it was supposed to be made public.
Graham Hand, a former ambassador who leads a team of 49 censors at the government’s secretive Hanslope Park facility, made the comment while giving evidence to an information tribunal in London last week.
The case, brought by Declassified UK, concerns diplomatic files from Margaret Thatcher’s premiership about a British mercenary company – Keenie Meenie Services (KMS) – that fought a Tamil uprising in Sri Lanka during the 1980s.
KMS trained a commando unit notorious for torture and later provided pilots for helicopter gunships which massacred Tamil civilians.
Freedom of information requests about KMS were made in 2018 in preparation for a book and documentary on the company.
Certain papers were released by the Foreign Office while others were kept classified and became subject to an appeal.
A tranche of documents was neither released nor retained under exemptions in the freedom of information act, but simply not given to the media.
The 27 missing pages were only passed to Declassified this February, weeks before the Foreign Office was due in court.
Hand and government lawyers were unable to explain the delay of up to six years nor clarify when they were first cleared for release.
‘Not enough’
The papers, dating from April 1985, reveal how Thatcher personally wanted Britain to provide Sri Lanka with more support for its counter-insurgency campaign against the island’s Tamil minority, which was regarded as too left-wing.
Officials told her about the training done by KMS and that arms export rules would be applied “flexibly”, as well as other measures.
However Thatcher’s top foreign policy adviser Charles Powell wrote: “Her view is that it is not enough.”
The chief of the defence staff then proposed recommending Sri Lanka employ private UK security experts, including retired British army general Corran Purdon from Falconstar, “a rival firm to KMS”.
If Purdon was deemed unsuitable, then the Ministry of Defence “could easily come up with a variety of other names.”
Thatcher appeared to postpone offering more support until India – who was sympathetic to the Tamil cause – had bought Westland helicopters from the UK, yet the prime minister did not object to KMS carrying on its role.
The revelations cast fresh doubt on the government’s long-held claim – made to a UN inquiry – that it “had no locus to intervene in what was a commercial contract” between KMS and the Sri Lankan authorities.
Metropolitan police detectives are currently investigating whether KMS committed war crimes against Tamil civilians, having launched a probe once this author’s book was published in 2020.
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See no evil
Hand – who has not read the book in full – admitted in court that the Foreign Office never informed police about references in the files to war crimes, which were visible to his staff who reviewed the documents years prior.
When asked about this by Declassified’s barrister Julianne Kerr Morrison, Hand replied: “Counsel raises a very good question.
“It is the case that from time to time we come across something in files that may not be known to police and I know of cases that may be reported to police – less human rights violations but more child abuse allegations that have not been reported.”
Hand said his staff could decide for themselves whether to inform police about evidence of historical crimes.
He added: “I happen to have been the first head of the human rights department in the Foreign Office so I know a great deal about reporting mechanisms.
“I would consider myself well placed to judge whether to report alleged violations to any higher authority or indeed police.”
Morrison asked: “Did this happen at all in terms of information that’s been released to us or withheld?”
Hand replied: “No it has not. I can say that with certainty. There was a great deal of concern at the time vis-à-vis the UK’s position with Sri Lanka and desire to act judicially but I’m not aware of anything that was or should have been reported to the police.”
Morrison: “You are of course aware that the Met are investigating allegations of war crimes based on this context?”
Hand nodded silently.
Stephen Kosmin, a Foreign Office barrister, praised Hand, saying he “knows the drill when it comes to sensitivity review…he probably wrote it.”
‘Wholesale massacre’
Among the documents which Hand did not show police – and still wants to partially redact – is one where a KMS director said Sri Lankan soldiers had committed a “wholesale massacre of women and children”.
Delays in declassifying files on KMS – many of which became eligible for release in 2015 under the 30-year-rule – meant police were unable to question a prime suspect before he passed away.
Major Brian Baty, an SAS veteran who was the top KMS mercenary in Sri Lanka, died in February 2020, in the month between the book being published and the war crimes probe commencing.
When this author visited Baty’s Herefordshire home in 2018 to ask whether he had committed war crimes in Sri Lanka, he shouted down from an upstairs window: “Bugger off my land!”
A file on Sri Lanka from 1985 appears to say that Baty was “acting effectively as the Director of Military Operations for the Sri Lankan High Command”, although a five line redaction before the quote still prevents a full picture of what was said.
A written judgment on whether more should be declassified is expected at a later date.
Thanks to everyone who donated to the CrowdJustice appeal, and to William Kenyon at ITN Solicitors and Julianne Kerr Morrison who worked on much of this case pro-bono. Read all the newly released material below.
